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Click on the contributor's name for a short biography. The names
of initiated members of ISKCON are listed by their first initial.
James A. Beckford is Professor of
Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. His research is concerned
with politics and religion, publicly funded chaplaincies and new
religious movements. His principle publications include, The
Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological Analysis of Jehovah's Witnesses,
Cult Controversies: the Societal Response to New Religious Movements
and Religion in Advanced Industrial Society. He is currently
a vice-president of the International Sociological Association.
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Bharata Shrestha dasa (William G.
Wall) joined ISKCON in 1983 and was initiated in 1988. He has been
involved in a number of preaching programmes. He has been the president
of the ISKCON centre in New Haven, USA. He was among those that
helped to start the Institute for Vaishnava Studies at the Graduate
Theological Union, which is a consortium of divinity schools offering
joint Ph.D. courses with the University of California, Berkeley.
He holds a Ph.D. in Literature and has taught literature at the
University of Massachusetts, USA. He has also taught in ISKCON schools:
at the Vaishnava Academy Boys, Vaishnava Academy Girls, New Ramana
Reti Day School and at The Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education,
Gita Nagari. Bharata Shrestha Das is married to Jaya Hari devi dasi
and has four children.
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Chanda Chatterjee has been teaching
philosophy in Miranda House, University of Delhi for twenty years
where she took her MA and Ph.D. degrees. She has been exploring
the theme of the Philosophy of Caitanya Vaishnavism for many years.
Resulting in a publication of her book, Philosophy of Caitanya and
His School, (New Delhi: Associated Publishing Company, 1993).
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Francis X. Clooney S.J. is a Professor
of Comparative Theology at Boston College, Boston, U.S.A..He is
also the President of the Society for Hindu-Christian Dialogue.
He is currently beginning a comparative study of the nature of the
existence of God as well as a book on what Christians can learn
form Hindu spirituality. Francis joined the Society of Jesus in
1968 and received his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest in 1978.
He received his Ph.D. from the department of South Asian Languages
and Culture of the University of Chicago in 1984. He also taught
at a high school in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 1973-1975. Since that
time he has taught, studied and lived in Madras, India. Presently
he is the author of four books including Theology after Vedanta:
An Experimental in Comparative Theology (1993) and Art and
Theology of the Shri Vaishnavas (1994).
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Judith Coney. After her initial degree
in Religious Studies and Anthropology, Judith Coney took a M.Sc.
in Information Systems and a doctorate in the Sociology of Religion
on a South Asian new religious movement. She jointly produced The
Way of the Heart: A Study of Rajneeshism (Aquarian Press, 1986)
and has recently completed Sahaja Yoga (Curzon Press, 1998).
In the last year she has also contributed papers to two forthcoming
edited volumes, The South Asian Diaspora (SUNY) and Children
in New Religious Movements (Rutgers). Her research interests
include new religions, media and religion, and the construction
of histories in religions.
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Denise Cush is Senior Lecturer in the
Study of Religions and Religious Education at Bath Spa University
College. She is interested in Religious Education from an international
perspective and the perspectives of religions on education. She
specialises in Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. Her publications
include Buddhism (Hodder and Stoughton, 1994), an introduction
for students at A-level and university, and 'Paganism in the classroom'
British Journal of Religious Education 19(12), (1997). Recent
articles connected to Hinduism in collaboration with her colleague
Catherine Robinson include 'The contemporary construction of Hindu
Identity', Diskus. 2(2) (1995) and 'The Sacred Cow: Hinduism
and Ecology', Journal of Beliefs and Values 18(1) (1997).
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Rahul Peter Das was born in Germany
in 1954. He has been educated up to (and including) the Pre-Medical
Examination in Calcutta. This included obtaining a National Merit
Certificate, being a JB-NSTS scholar and Science Fair award winner
and the Indian representative at the London Youth Science Fortnight
in 1973. He studied Indology, Islamic Studies and Tamil at Cologne,
Hamburg, Bonn and Kiel. He obtained his M.A. in 1981, his Dr.Phil.
in 1985 and Habilitation in 1993 from Hamburg University.
His special fields of interest include: Vedic Studies, Ayurveda,
Vrikshayurveda and Bengali Studies (especially "folk"
and syncretistic religions). From 1981 to 1994 he engaged in research
work in Ayurveda and Vrikshayurveda at the Universities of Hamburg,
Bonn and Groningen (in the Netherlands). During this time he also
taught Bengali and Sanskrit at Hamburg University. Since 1994 he
has been a professor for the philology of modern Indian languages
at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. He is the author of numerous
publications and speaks often at conferences and lectures in Germany
and abroad.
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Sefton Davies is an independent consultant
and trainer specialising in management in education. He is an associate
tutor of the University of Bristol and at the Further Education
Staff College (UK), and his clients include the University of Wales,
Harvard University, Research Triangle Institute and a number of
local authorities and F.E. Colleges in Britain. He also works extensively
overseas in a range of Third World countries, including Pakistan,
Egypt, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Malaysia. He is married to Ann and has
three children, including his daughter, Keshava devi dasi.
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Susan Horsfall is a Ph.D. research
student at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne where she is researching
Hinduism in the State School Syllabus. She obtained her first degree
in Religious Studies, at the same university in 1996. Prior to taking
up academic studies, she worked as a personnel executive for Argyll
Stores, which subsequently took over Safeway Supermarkets UK.
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Hrdayananda dasa Goswami (Howard
J. Resnick) joined ISKCON in 1969. He received the order of sannyasa
from Srila Prabhupada in 1972 and he has lectured extensively at
universities and educational institutions around the world as well
as writing many papers and books in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Having received his degree in the study of religion from UCLA, he
is now completing a doctoral programme in ancient Vaishnava history
in Harvard university. He is presently also engaged in a scholarly
translation of the Mahabharata, complete with Sanskrit and
transliterations. He has been a member of ISKCON's Governing Body
Commission since 1972.
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Massimo Introvigne is a practicing lawyer
in Italy as well a scholar. He is both the managing director and
founding member of the Centre for the Study of New Religious Movements
(CESNUR). CESNUR is an organisation founded by a by a group of international
scholars to study and to provide accurate independent, unbiased
information on these groups. In particular it acts as a consultancy
service to governments. Dr Introvigne is the author of over twenty
books and the editor of twelve publications on the sociology of
religion and culture.
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Colin Johnson taught Religious Education in secondary
schools before taking up his present post as Publications Director
of the Christian Education Movement in 1989. The Christian Education
Movement publishes books for religious education in schools, not
only on Christianity but also on other major world faiths. He is
the author of Christian Teachers and World Faiths , in which
he encourages Christians in education to take up the teaching of
world faiths without feeling any sense of denial of their own Christian
identity. He has worked with Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and
Sikhs, as the editor of Praying Their Faith, an Anthology of
Prayers. He is also a priest in the Church of England and teaches
adult Bible classes.
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Doris Klostermaier received her Ph.D.
from the University of Manitoba, Canada, where she is currently
Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion. She teaches courses
in world religions and women and religion, with a special focus
on Vaishnavism. She is the author of the first English biography
of the nineteenth-century Austrian novelist Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
and is presently preparing a concise encyclopaedia of women in religion.
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Klaus Klostermaier,
a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is currently teaching as
University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Religion
at the University of Manitoba (Canada). He also served from 1986
to 1997 as Department Head and will take up the position of Director
of Academic Affairs and Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Vaishnava
and Hindu Studies in 1999. He spent two years on the staff of the
Institute of Oriental Philosophy in Vrindavan, U.P., India and,
obtained a Ph.D. in Ancient Indian History and Culture from the
University of Bombay. He is widely known as an expert on Hinduism.
Some of his major publications are Hindu and Christian in Vrindavan
(1969), A Survey of Hinduism (2nd ed. 1994), Indian Theology
in Dialogue (1986), and Mythologies and Philosophies of
Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India (1984).
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Kim Knott is a Senior Lecturer in Religious
Studies at the University of Leeds, England. She is author of two
books, including My Sweet Lord: The Hare Krishna Movement (1986)
and a number of articles on contemporary Hindu movements in Diaspora.
She also directs the Community Religions Project at Leeds that publishes
and encourages research on minority religions in Britain. In recent
years her research and writing has focused on women in religions,
and at present, she is writing a book based on a cross-cultural
study of women and destiny.
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Krishna Dharma dasa is a member of
the ISKCON UK National Management Council and temple president of
the ISKCON centre in Manchester, England. He joined ISKCON in 1979
and served as a sankirtan preacher until 1986 when he opened
the Manchester centre. Krishna Dharma started a "Hare Krishna
Food for Life" programme there in 1989, which has become the
largest free food distribution effort in that city. he is the author
of a novelisation of the Ramayana, and has plans for a similar
version of the Mahabharata. He is married to Cintamani devi
dasi and has two children, Madhava, and Radhika.
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Malory Nye is a lecturer in Anthropology
of Religion at the University of Stirling. He has conducted research
in the development among the Hare Krishna movement and other Hindu
groups in Britain. His book, A Place for our Gods (1996)
concentrates on work he did with a Hindu group in Edinburgh. He
is currently working on a book about the Bhaktivedanta Manor Campaign
to save the temple against the threat of enforced closure.
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Joseph T. O'Connell holds the post
of Associate Professor of Religion at St. Michael's College, University
of Toronto. His Ph.D. Dissertation focused on the 'Social Implications
of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Movement' (Harvard, 1970), and he has since
contributed to many academic journals and edited several volumes,
including Bengal Vaishnavism, Orientalism, Society and the Arts
(East Lansing, 1985). He is presently editing a volume on institutional
and organisational aspects of religious movements for the Indian
Institute of Advanced Study; he is also preparing two volumes of
his own on the Caitanya Vaishnava religion, one focusing on its
social implications and the other on theological texts and issues.
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Radha devi dasi (Rebecca Corina) obtained
her first degree in Economics from the University of Chicago in
1983. She went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1986. She
spent six years practising environmental and insurance law, after
which she went on to teach first at San Diego Law School and currently
at Chapman University School of Law where she is now Assistant Professor
of Law. She is a disciple of Mukunda Goswami and she works with
ISKCON communications North America, the Women's Ministry and the
North American Temple Support Office, doing legal work and social
activism. She is married to Yudhisthira dasa and has two children.
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Ranchor dasa joined ISKCON and received
initiation from Srila Prabhupada in 1970. He has held many posts
of responsibility on behalf of ISKCON England, including Temple
President of the central London temple. He is the author of Hinduism
and Ecology, founder of the charity Friends of Vrindavan and
a member of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education
and Culture (ICOREC).
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Rasamandala dasa joined ISKCON
at Bhaktivedanta Manor, England in 1973 and was initiated by Shrila
Prabhupada. He is currently Director of ISKCON Educational Services
which oversees and promotes the Society's interaction with schools
and colleges in the U.K. He is also a member of the VTE (Vaishnava
Training and Education) with responsibility for teacher training
and curriculum development.
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Ravindra Svarupa dasa was initiated
by Shrila Prabhupäda in 1971. He has been a member of ISKCON's Governing
Body Commission since 1987 and is the Chairman of the North American
GBC Continental Committee, the president of ISKCON Philadelphia
and an initiating guru. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion from
Temple University and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of
Pennsylvania. Among his articles and publications are Charismatic
Gurus and Managing Directors: Leadership Issues Arising in Retrofitting
a Medieval Tradition for the Modern World, (Association for
the Sociology of Religion, 1995); "Cleaning House and Cleaning
Hearts: Reform and Renewal in ISKCON" (ISKCON Communications
Journal, No's. 3 & 4); "The Religions of Others in
ISKCON's Eyes" (In Attitudes of Religion and Ideologies
Toward the Outsider: The Other . Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen
Press, 1990.) Encounter with the Lord of the Universe: Collected
Essays 1978-1983 (Washington: The Gita-nagari Press, 1984).
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Thomas Robbins received a doctoral
degree in sociology at the University of North Carolina in 1973.
He has specialised in the sociology of religion and, in particular,
in the study of new and marginal religious movements. Dr Robbins
has been especially concerned with legal issues arising in connection
with deviant sects and specifically with controversies over 'brainwashing'
and conversion process within such groups. More recently, he has
been investigating the factors that appear to enhance the volatility
of movements manifesting apocalyptic belief systems, and which affect
the likelihood of violence erupting either within a millenarian
group, or in confrontations between a group and authorities. He
is the author of Cults, Converts and Charisma and co-editor
of a number of volumes including In Gods We Trust, Church-State
Relations, and Between the Sacred and the Secular . He
has authored and co-authored numerous articles on various aspects
of contemporary religious movements. His co-edited collections of
original papers, Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem (1997: Routlage
Books). He lives in Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
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E. Burke Rochford, Jr. is Professor
of Sociology at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. He has studied
the Hare Krishna Movement for over twenty years. His book on family,
the second generation and the development of ISKCON is in progress.
Professor Rochford is co-editor of a forthcoming book honouring
Shrila Prabhupada. In addition to his academic studies, he has served
as a member of ISKCON's North American Board of Education.
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Kenneth Rose is assistant Professor of
Philosophy and Religious Studies at Christo-pher Newport University,
Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard
University and his M. Div. from Harvard Divinity School. His area
of research is in the philosophy and theology of religions and his
book, Knowing the Real: John Hick on Religious Pluralism and
the Cognitivity of Religions, appeared in autumn 1996, published
by Peter Lang, New York. He was a member of ISKCON, in New York,
from 1970-1972, initiated by Bhaktivedanta Swami as Karnamrita dasa.
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Maurice Ryan is a Presbyterian minister
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has recently retired from the position
of Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Stranmillis College of
Education where he taught World Religious Studies. He is a founder
member of the Northern Ireland Inter-religious Forum which is a
pioneering project bringing together people form every religious
community in Northern Ireland in an attempt to increase mutual understanding
between them, and to also, most importantly, help the Northern Ireland
peace process. He is the author of two books: Small World: Introducing
Primary School Children to World Religions (1988) and Another
Ireland: An Introduction to Ireland's Ethnic-Religious Minority
Communities (1996).
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John A. Saliba S.J. has been a Jesuit
priest for 30 years, and since 1987 has been Professor of Religious
Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he has taught
since 1970. He was involved in the recent compilation of a three-year
study of new religious movements conducted for the Vatican by the
International Federation of Catholic Universities. He is known for
two major bibliographies on the new religious movements: Psychiatry
and the Cults: An Annotated Bibliography (Garland, 1987) and
Social Science and the Cults: An Annotated Bibliography (Garland,
1990). He has also recently published Perspectives on New Religious
Movements (Geoffery Chapman, 1995).
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Charles Selengut is professor of
Sociology at County College of Morris and visiting Professor of
Religious Studies at Drew University (both colleges are situated
in New Jersey, U.S.A). His main field is in the study of contemporary
religious movements and he is the author of many scholarly studies.
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Aravind Sharma is Birks Professor of
Comparative Religion at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. His
interests are in world religions, Hindu philosophy and Sanskrit.
He is currently concentrating on Hinduism and human rights, Hindu
egalatarianism, and Hindu concepts of social justice. Publications
include: The Hindu Gita (1986, Duckworth, London), Our
Religions (1993, Harper Collins, San Francisco) and Hinduism
for Our Times (1996, Oxford University Press, New Delhi).
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Larry D. Shinn is president of Berea
College, Kentucky. From 1989-1994 he served as vice-president for
academic affairs at Bucknell University and as Dean of the College
of Arts and Sciences from 1984-1989. He taught several different
courses for the department of Religion during his decade of service
at Bucknell. He began his career at Oberlin College in 1970 and
attained full professorship there in 1981. He was granted his PhD
in History of Religion by Princeton University in 1972.
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Tamal Krishna Goswami has served on ISKCON's
Governing Body Commission since its inception in 1970. In January
1972, he accepted the renounced order of life (sannyasa)
from his spiritual master, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
in Jaipur, India. He served as ISKCON's first GBC Secretary for
India from 1970-74 and was appointed trustee of the Bhaktivedanta
Book Trust, responsible for sales in the USA. In 1977, he served
as the GBC Secretary for Texas and a large number of countries in
the Orient. He has recently completed a course of full-time study
at Southern Methodist University. His publications include: Reason
and Belief: Problem solving in the Philosophy of Religion (Pundits
Press, 1997); Yoga for the 21st Century (1991); Prabhupada
Antya-lila: The Final Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada (Washington
D. C.: Institute for Vaishnava Studies, 1988); Jagannatha-Priya
Natakam: The Drama of Lord Jagannatha (Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Bhaktivedanta Institute of Religion and Culture, 1985); and Servant
of the Servant (Hong Kong: BBT, 1984).
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Judson Trapnell is an Episcopal layman
who has served as chaplain in both medical hospitals and at a social
service agency. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in
the Department of Religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
He is the author of several articles, including 'Indian sources
on the possibility of a pluralist view of religions', Journal
of Ecumenical Studies (forthcoming); 'The comparative study
of religious experience: Implications for dialogue' Dialogue
& Alliance (1997), 'Two models of Christian dialogue with
Hinduism: Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda', Vidyjyoti
(1996), and 'The Mutual Transformation of Self and Symbol: Bede
Griffiths and the Jesus Prayer', Horizons (1996). He is a
contributor to the forthcoming Encyclopaedia of Hinduism and is
currently working on a publication that will be a study on Griffiths.
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Edmund Weber is Professor of Comparative
Religion at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He is the editor
of three journals: Theion-Annual for Religious Culture, Studia
Irenica and the Journal of Religious Culture (published
on the Internet). He is the author of a number of journal articles,
among them 'Free Love and Bhakti: A dogmatic Identification' (Martin
Luther and Shri Krishna Caitanya's Concept of Pure Devotion) in
Studia Irenica 33, 1988, and 'Modern Hindu Culture: A study
of the Modernisation of Hinduism by Considering the Parallels in
Modern Christianity', Journal of Religious Culture, 6, 1997.
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Yogesvara dasa (Joshua M. Greene) is founder
and director of Stories To Remember (STR), a New York-based company
that produces and distributes literature based films, books and
television programmes for international markets. STR programmes
are seen on The Disney Channel and the BBC as well as in 20 countries
and12 languages. His illustrated picture book Hanuman will
be published this autumn by Ten Speed Press. His Divine Grace A.
C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiated him in 1970. Yogesvara
dasa's film People, a one-hour special celebrating diversity,
received an Emmy nomination and was debuted at the United Nations.
He is presently completing a two-hour documentary on testimony by
Holocaust survivors for public television in the USA.
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