Berkley Center

Paula Arai holds the Urmila Gopal Singhal Professorship in Religions of India at Louisiana State University. She teaches courses in Buddhism, Asian Religions, and theories of religion. Her books include Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra (2019), Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women’s Rituals (2011), and Women Living Zen (1999).

André van der Braak is professor of Buddhist Philosophy in Dialogue with other World Views at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He is also a certified Zen Buddhist teacher in the lineage of Maha Karuna Chan. He is the project leader of a research project on multiple religious belonging. His most recent publication is Reimagining Zen in A Secular Age: Charles Taylor and Zen Buddhism in the West (2020).

Karen Enriquez is assistant professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University. She teaches in the areas of Christian systematic theology and comparative theology. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, Catholic Theological Society of America, College Theology Society, and the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies.

Peter Feldmeier is the Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo. His areas of interest include Christian spirituality, comparative theology, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and religious mysticism. He is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America; the College Theology Society; the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality; and the American Academy of Religion.

Ruben L. F. Habito is a professor of world religions and spirituality at Southern Methodist University. His research interests include Japanese medieval Buddhism, themes in comparative theology, spirituality and socio-ecological engagement. His latest book is Zen and the Spiritual Exercises: Paths of Awakening and Transformation (2013). He was president of the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies from 2003 to 2005.

Kevin Hunt is a Trappist priest and Zen sensei (teacher) at St. Joseph’s Abbey, making him the first North American Trappist to be both a Catholic monk and authorized instructor of Zen. Jesuit Yr. Robert Kennedy, a Zen roshi (master) and Hunt's most recent teacher, oversaw the installation.

The Rev. Dr. Kristin Johnston Largen is a professor of systematic theology at United Lutheran Seminary. Her focus is on comparative theology with Buddhism and Hinduism and 21st century theology, specifically feminist and liberation theologies. She is the editor of Dialog: A Journal of Theology, and her most recent books are Finding God among our Neighbors, vol. 1 & 2 (2013, 2017).

Leo D. Lefebure is the Matteo Ricci, S.J., Professor of Theology at Georgetown University and a Berkley Center faculty fellow. He is also a former Long Room Hub Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago. His books include, among others, Transforming Interreligious Relations: Catholic Responses to Religious Pluralism in the United States (2020); Religion, Authority, and the State: From Constantine to the Contemporary World (2016, editor); True and Holy: Christian Scripture and Other Religions (2014); The Path of Wisdom: A Christian Commentary on the Dhammapada (2011, with Peter Feldmeier); Revelation, the Religions, and Violence (2000); and The Buddha and the Christ (1993). Lefebure is  a research fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a trustee emeritus of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and a former president of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. He has previously taught classes supported through the Berkley Center's Doyle Seminars project. He obtained his STL from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School.