Contact: Prof. Nathan Katz, Florida International University
Email: nathan.katz@fiu.edu
Phone: 305.348.3909
According to a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, more and more Americans describe themselves as "spiritual, but not religious,” a category that did not exist a decade ago. What does this claim mean? What is spirituality, and can it truly be separated from religion? From historical, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives, the answer is an emphatic “yes,” claims Florida International University distinguished professor Nathan Katz, himself a committed Jew who has studied with and brought the Dalai Lama to Miami three times.
Katz will elaborate on these social and religious trends in a presentation titled “Contemporary Global Spirituality” on Friday, April 18. The 9 a.m. talk will be held in the Moye Chapel of Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 De Soto Blvd. (opposite the Biltmore Hotel) in Coral Gables.
Free and open to the public, the morning will include a kosher-for-Passover breakfast.
Katz is the author of 15 books, including National Jewish Book Award finalist, Who Are the Jews of India? and memoir, Spiritual Journey Home. The recipient of four Fulbright research and teaching awards, he was selected as a delegate to the 1990 Tibetan-Jewish dialogue hosted by the Dalai Lama and reported in the best-selling book, The Jew in the Lotus. Katz is a Florida International University Distinguished Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, the Bhagwan Mahavir Professor of Jain Studies, academic director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, and founding director of the Program in the Study of Spirituality.
The program is the Annual Interfaith Lecture of Coral Gables Congregational Church in conjunction with the Ruth K. & Shepard Broad Distinguished Lecture Series. Co-sponsors are Coral Gables Congregational Church and FIU’s Program in the Study of Spirituality.
For more information, call 305-348-7266.
