Contributors Huston Smith is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University. For fifteen years he was professor of philosophy at M.I.T. and for a decade before that he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently he has served as Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Holder of twelve honorary degrees, Smith’s fourteen books include the best-selling The World’s Religions and Why Religion Matters, which won the Wilbur Award for the best book on religion published in 2001. In 1996 Bill Moyers devoted a five-part PBS Special, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith, to his life and work. Henry Rosemont Jr. is George B. and Wilma Reeves Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts, Emeritus, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Senior Consulting Professor at Fudan University in China, and, currently, visiting professor of religious studies at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Washington (1967) and pursued postdoctoral studies in linguistics at M.I.T. (1967–71). He is the author of A Chinese Mirror (1991), Rationality and Religious Experience (2001), has edited and/or translated seven other books, and has contributed over sixty articles and reviews to anthologies and scholarly journals. Wilson Van Dusen (1922–2005) wrote widely on the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg and on visionary experience in general. Among his books are Beauty, Wonder and the Mystical Mind; Design of Existence: Emanation from Source to Creation; Returning to the Source; and The Presence of Other Worlds: The Psychological/Spiritual Findings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs lectures and leads workshops worldwide in his capacity as executive director of United Religions Initiative, an international organization of independent multi-faith associations devoted to peace, justice and healing. He is an Episcopal priest associated with the Diocese of San Francisco. His essay “Opening the Dream: Beyond the Limits of Otherness” has recently been published as part of the Fetzer Institute’s series Deepening the American Dream. He coauthored, with coworker Sally Mahe, Birth of a Global Community (2004), a book on the birth of the United Religions Initiative, and has published many articles on interfaith work. Rev. Gibbs received his B.A. in theater arts from Pomona College, an M.A. in writing from the University of Minnesota and an M.Div. and a D.D., honoris causa, from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. ,
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Fr. Pierre-François de Béthune, O.S.B., is secretary-general of the worldwide Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique (DIM). He is a monk at Saint-André de Clerlande in Belgium. He is the author of By Faith and Hospitality: The Monastic Tradition as a Model for Interreligious Encounter (Morehouse, 2003), among other books and articles. Rev. Canon Francis V. Tiso is associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he serves as liaison to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and traditional religions. He was previously assigned to the Archdiocese of San Francisco and is a priest of the Diocese of Isernia-Venafro, Italy, where he holds a Canonry in the Cathedral. He has published and lectured widely and has led research expeditions in South Asia, Tibet and the Far East. He holds the master of divinity degree (cum laude) from Harvard University and a doctorate from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, where his specialization was Buddhist studies. Rev. Heng Sure is a member of the editorial committee of Religion East & West. From May 1977 to October 1979, he undertook a silent pilgrimage along the California Coast Highway, making a full reverential bow every third step from Los Angeles to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Mendocino County, where he had been ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1976. Fr. Joseph Wong, O.S.B.Cam., is a monk of the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California. He holds a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, with a dissertation on Karl Rahner, published as LogosSymbol in the Christology of Karl Rahner. Currently he is a research associate of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, University of San Francisco. He is the coeditor of Purity of Heart and Contemplation: A Monastic Dialogue between Christian and Asian Traditions. Leena Taneja recently completed her dissertation, “Tracing the Absence of Faith: Hermeneutics, Deconstruction and the School of Gaudı Gaud. -ya Vais.n.avism.” She holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree in Language, Society and Culture from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her forthcoming articles include “Oneself as Another: A Gadamerian Conversation with Gaud.-ı ya Vaisn Vais. . avism” in Hinduism and Western Hermeneutics: Promise or Peril (Oxford University Press, Fall 2005). She currently holds a position at Stetson University in Florida.
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Raimon Panikkar earned the Ph.D. in philosophy at Madrid in 1946; the D.Sc. in chemistry at Madrid in 1958; and the Th.D. in theology at Rome in 1961. Ordained a Catholic priest in 1946, he served as professor at the Universities of Madrid, Rome and Harvard. He is vice president of the Teilhard Centre for the Future of Man (United Kingdom and Ireland); a member of the Institut International de Philosophie (Paris); president of the Center for Cross-cultural Religious Studies (California); and president of Vivarium (Centre of Intercultural Studies, Catalonia). His book La India, gente, cultura, creencias received the Premio Español de Literatura in 1951. He won the Espiritualidad 1999 Award for his book El mundanal silencio and the Nonino (2001) Award for Un maestro per il nostro tempo. Steven A. Tainer has studied contemplative traditions intensively since 1970 with many Tibetan and Chinese teachers. He is a core faculty member of the Kira Institute (www.kira.org), which explores the interface between modern, scientifically framed perspectives and matters involving human values. He also offers Chan contemplation classes at the Institute for World Religions. Mr. Tainer has been the coauthor or editor of several books on Buddhism and Taoism, including Dragon’s Play; Twenty-One Nails; and Time, Space, Knowledge. Ron Epstein is a member of the editorial committee of Religion East & West. His many publications and translations include Buddhism A to Z and The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra with the No-Stand Gatha Explanation and Prose Commentary of Tripitaka Master Hsüan Hua. Dr. Epstein’s educational websites include “Resources for the Study of Buddhism,” and “Resources for the Study of Religion.”
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