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April 28, 2025

The Bhagavad Gita

Event Series: Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference

RSVP Required
19th-century illustrated Sanskrit manuscript from the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gītā (200-100 BCE) is a book with immense prestige in the Hindu world, and it has made a difference to the lives of countless Hindus. It is also one of the best-known Hindu scriptures in the West. This text, however, has not always enjoyed the place it now has. In fact, the modern prestige and impact of the Bhagavad Gītā has come about as the result of a cultural interchange that has taken place between the West and India over the course of the last two centuries. In this talk, Rev. Martin Ganeri, O.P., will outline the way the Bhagavad Gītā came to be regarded as the “Bible” of the Hindus, as it served to inspire Hindus in their search for social and political emancipation, as well as the transcendent, in the modern period.

This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University with Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the series Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.

Participants

Rev. Martin Ganeri, O.P.

Rev. Martin Ganeri, O.P.

Rev. Martin Ganeri, O.P., is director of the Institute for Interreligious Relations at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and fellow and lector in world religions at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.

Michael Scott

Michael Scott

Michael Scott is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college advisor for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior advisor to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously served as the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, where he is professor emeritus.