Spiritual Paths and Practices Among the World’s Religions

Saturday, January 15, 2004, 9:30 - 4:30

Spirituality that liberates individuals and societies can be found in every tradition, even the ones currently dominated by fundamentalist tendencies and attitudes. In this course Dr. George Williams will take the class on an exploration of a variety of World Religious Traditions through the use of multimedia and classroom discussion.

Please contact Rali Weaver  to register for the course or for additional information. Cost is $50.

George M. Williams

Vita

George M. Williams was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1972, specializing in religion in modern India.

Williams taught one year at Newton College of the Sacred Heart, Boston, before going to California State University, Chico, in the fall of 1972, joining their newly formed Department of Religious Studies.

His major interest for the past two decades has been in religions that liberate and in liberal religion. This interest has been furthered in the International Association for Religious Freedom [IARF] and has led to two honorary doctorates: in May 1994 Starr King School for the Ministry awarded Prof. Williams with the Litterarum Humanarum Doctor and in October, 1996, Williams was presented the award of Doctor Honoris Causa from the United Protestant Seminary of Cluj [Kolozsvar], Transylvania, Romania.

A specialist on Svâmî Vivekânanda and the Hindu Renaissance, Williams helped found the section on Hinduism in the American Academy of Religion. He also served on the Electronic Publishing Committee of the academy and was its projects director for a number of years.

In both 1997 and 1998 Williams held the Shree Muherjee Chair at National Institute of Advanced Studies, National Science Campus, Bangalore, India. While there he worked on projects involving preservation, digital archiving, translation and preparation of a comprehensive database of the Bhagavad Gita and other sacred texts.

In 1998 he held workshops for archivists and librarians from all over India on use of the internet for research and publication, CD ROM publication, and digital archiving. In 2001 Williams completed a two year project: the digitizing and archiving of the works of Raja Rammohan Roy, the great reformer of Hinduism and the founder of the Brahmo Samaj.

In 2002 he finished a five year work, Handbook of Hindu Mythology. In 2004 he finished a monograph on Shinto.

His work with Buddhist and Shinto groups in Japan has taken him there 26 times. Some of the results include three videos on aspects of Buddhism and seven on Shinto. Williams was fortunate enough to know personally and work with some of the major religious leaders of 20th Century Japan, including Dr. Shinichiro Imaoka, President-founder Nikkyo Niwano of Rissho Kosei-kai, Rev. Dr. Yukitaka Yamamoto, and too many more to mention.

He is currently working on a dual study of comparative spirituality from ideal and from highly critical perspectives.