Scholar to Recount Early Christian-Buddhist Encounter

WORCESTER, Mass. – Trent Pomplun, author of Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri’s Mission to Tibet, will speak about his book in a lecture titled, “Inter-Religious Dialogue in Tibet,” Thursday, Feb. 18, at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is part of the Presidential Colloquia on Jesuits and the Liberal Arts, sponsored by the president’s office and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. It is free and open to the public.

Jesuit on the Roof of the World (Oxford University Press, 2009) is the first full-length study of the Jesuit explorer and missionary who traveled in Tibet from 1715-21. In it, Pomplun retraces Ippolito Desideri’s journey across the great Western deserts of Tibet, his entry into the court of the Mongol chieftain Lhazang Khan, and his flight across Eastern Tibet during the wars that shook Tibet during the 18th century. He also relates Desideri’s personal conflict between his own Roman Catholic beliefs and his appreciation of Tibetan religion and culture.

Pomplun is associate professor of theology and director of the Catholic Studies Program at Loyola University Maryland. He is an editor of The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism (Wiley Blackwell, 2007).

To learn more about this program and other Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture events, visit holycross.edu/crec.

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.