This is a time of new beginnings. Here in Massachusetts, Spring is just beginning to spring. Easter is upon us. Baseball is back. The school year is drawing to a close, but that means that summer is just around the corner and already on the minds of most students, teachers, and professors.

It is especially a time of new beginnings for me, personally. Just one month ago, my son was born. Just one week ago, my comprehensive exams finally concluded, which means that the dissertation…

This will be a short post, partially due to the fact that I am overwhelmed with studies for comprehensive exams next month, and partially because there are already so many brilliant posts on SoF that I would encourage others to read those instead of my terse prose.

I want to reflect most briefly, however, on the news that Rev. Peter Gomes, the chaplain of Harvard Memorial Chapel, passed away yesterday (Monday). Two excellent obituaries have already been published by the…

What do ancient advaita Vedānta philosophical debates with Mīmāṁsakas and Buddhists over the relationship between perception and cognition and between universals and particulars have to do with State of Formation and with Republican-Democrat political debates today? I wager that even if you don’t give a lick about Hindu or Buddhist philosophy – or philosophy in general – you will still be interested in the discussion below.

This morning, I read a very interesting article by…

I am part of a community of students in theology (http://www.theologysalon.org) exploring the question: Why theology? No doubt, we all have different answers to this question. I, myself, have more than one answer.

The largest and simplest answer (for me) is: Because I want to make the world a better place. It is not always clear – even to me – how theology can make the world a better place. Conversely, it is, unfortunately, often clear how…