On October 15, 2025, Rev. Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, was invited to the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (JHIA) and the Center for Interreligious Studies in Africa (CISA) — Hekima University College (HUC) in Nairobi Kenya to speak on an interesting topic, How Western Jesuit Missionaries Studied Hinduism: Insights and Blind Spots.
Fr. Clooney, in his usual meditative and searching manner, challenged the audience to think deeply about the meaning of history not as a nostalgic backstroke to the past, but as a method of self-awareness and self-realization as a way to explain our faith journeys. In his view, understanding the past means deromanticizing the past, having to face our constraints, and build a more discerning future.
Based on his work in the field of comparative theology and interreligious dialogue over a decades-long career Fr. Clooney examined the ways in which the Jesuit missionaries of India, beginning with Francis Xavier and including Roberto de Nobili and Constantine Beschi among others, approached the task of engaging with Hinduism in a searching and committed manner. Their adventurous work, in the study of languages, or in ethnographic observation, or in theological dialogue, paved the way to some extraordinary intellectual and spiritual possibilities. This notwithstanding, they had cultural blind spots reflective of their epoch.
Based on the work of modern scholars including Joan-Pau Rubiés, Ines Županov and Savio Abreu, SJ, Fr. Clooney tracked the impact of Jesuit activities in Hindu traditions in bringing into existence a form of early Catholic Orientalism – a discipline that had shown the receptivity as well as the boundaries of Western missionary thought.
Similar encounters between religions during the past have also been related to contemporary interfaith realities by Fr. Clooney. He stated that the age of missionaries is over, but their heritage is still present, it is a call to humility, dialogue, and mutual understanding. He has stressed the need to see both sides, not only the Christian version of Hinduism, but also how Hindu thinkers have interacted with Christian thought, establishing what he termed as modern third spaces of dialogue.
In his final thoughts, Fr. Clooney underscored the importance of the role of institutions such as JHIA and CISA, which continue work of remembering, critiquing, and renewing Jesuit scholarship. Our conception of the past, he said, is what assists us in critical sympathy to project a more inclusive and dialogical future.
On his continuing academic travels – notably visiting the Xavier Centre of Historical Research in Goa, India – Fr. Clooney’s visit to JHIA–CISA leaves a new spirit of purposeful renewal: a reminder that the study of history, approached with an open and humble heart, can be an act of belief, dialogue, and transformation.
Watch the full recording on YouTube.
By Geoffrey Obatsa, Admin Assistant – JHIA
Editorial – November 2025 | Download the November 2025 JHIA Newsletter (PDF)
