PRESENTS

DR. PAUL LOVE

THE COMMITTEE REGRETS TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE GIBSON SERIES FOR 2008 HAS BEEN CANCELLED:

Dr. Love is having visa problems; he cannot leave India for fear that he would not be allowed to re-enter and to continue his work there. We invite you to participate in the Sunday evening discussion groups. Keep your eyes on the “white board” for times and topics.

Dr. Paul Love

August 11-15
“India’s Journey of the Past 50 Years: Observations of a Fellow Passenger”

This will in no way be an authoritative picture of India during the past half century. Rather, it will simply be observations made and felt by one mid-western American who has attempted to live and teach in India for the past fifty years on as far as possible a level playing field with his colleagues; an American who spent many summers at CSA before first going to India in 1954, and who has often visited the Assembly during brief holidays since that time.

The image of ‘Journey’ will help not only to chart India’s progress during the past half century, but also to organize the ‘fellow passenger’s’ observations, as the journey passes through north India and south India with ‘stops’ and ‘side-trips’ along the way. The observations will focus upon India’s agriculture, with its ‘green revolution’ in wheat production, its ‘white revolution’ in milk production and distribution, the impact of these ‘revolutions’ on rural society and the difficulties with which they impact the small farmer; on its industrial development, as the Indian government relinquishes ownership in key undertakings, as private entrepreneurship develops, as urban employment opportunities jump rapidly, along with larger slums and greater traffic congestion; on its higher education, as academic autonomy frees colleges and universities to diversify and innovate in what they teach, and as financial autonomy implicates the question of whom they teach, and tends to widen the gap between rich and poorer students; and on the religions of India, the effects of the nationalization and institutionalizing of the Indian church, the growth in self-consciousness among Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and other Indian religions, the increase in inter-religious tensions, and the opportunities for inter-religious dialogue.

There will be opportunity to look at the constantly receding destination of India’s journey, and to explore bases for responsible speculation regarding the immediate and longer distance future that the country may face. Throughout each presentation, there will be need to keep in mind the question of development: what we mean by the term, and particularly difficulties and disadvantages that so-called ‘development’ has brought into Indian life.

About Paul Love

Paul Love grew up in the mid-western United States, and makes Frankfort his place of residence whenever he is in this country. He was born in Cincinnati, had his primary and secondary education in Louisville, and took a BA. (Hons.) degree from the College of Wooster (Ohio). His theological degree is from Louisville Seminary with additional years of study at both Hartford Seminary Foundation and the Divinity School of Yale University. During the years 1954 to 57 and 1965 to 80 he taught English Literature at Baring College, Batala, Punjab in India, serving as organizing Head of the Postgraduate Department of English; the interval between these two appointments was spent in study and teaching in the Department of English at Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.), which led to the M.A. (1960) and Ph.D. (1965) degrees.

From 1980 to the present he has served in American College, Madurai, India, again as Organizing Head of Postgraduate English from 1980 to 1986 and as Director of SCILET, the College’s Study Centre for Indian Literature in English and Translation, from 1985 onward. He has published articles related to Indian literature in several international journals, and has served as production manager for each of the 19 issues of the Study Centre’s journal, Kavya Bharati (Poetry India).

The Love family has enjoyed summer residence in or adjacent to the Congregational Summer Assembly ever since Paul’s parents, Julian and Evelyn Love, spent their 1925 honeymoon in a cottage close to the Assembly’s Lake Michigan tennis courts. Many of the following summers were spent on the Assembly grounds, including 1946 and 1947 when Paul worked as a table waiter in the Assembly Dining Room. In 1957 the family moved into their Golf Lane cottage where they have vacationed every year since that date

OTHER SPIRITUAL LIFE PROGRAMS

As is our custom, we will hold a series of discussions and other presentations, usually on Sunday evenings. Among those topics which we wish to present are the following:

• The crisis in K-12 education: led by Dr. Bill Konnert
• Health care
• The role of religion in American political life
• The motion picture “Amazing Grace.”

In short, our main focus will be on issues which are or should be of concern in the upcoming election.

If you have suggestions, get in touch with Dave Cartlidge.