Searching for home in the world’s religions
“Why is it that being a Buddhist Christian is often flagged as a problem,” asks theologian John Thatamanil, “but being a capitalist Christian is not?”
Theology professor John Thatamanil (Courtesy of Union Theological Seminary)
John Thatamanil, a native of India, is a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he teaches comparative theology, religious diversity, Hindu-Christian dialogue, the theology of Paul Tillich, theory of religion, process theology, and eco-theology. He’s the author of Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity and the forthcoming book Desiring Truth: Comparative Theology and the Quest for Interreligious Wisdom. Hear the full version of this interview on the Century podcast In Search Of.
What were you in search of when you started on your path to interreligious studies?
I was in search of home. I came to the US when I was eight and a half years old, and I pretty quickly realized that most of the things I was told about what it means to be Indian came in the form of constraint. Being a good Indian meant that I could not date, could not go to the prom, etc.
