Sean Doyle

Disciplines/Field of Instruction

• Professor of History
• Asian, Middle Eastern, and African History
• Asian Religions, Islam, and Global Christianity

Degrees Received

• Ph.D., Asian History, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 2005 Specializations: south Asian cultural history, Asian Christianity

Courses Taught

• World History Sequence:
  • Modern Asia
  • Middle East
  • Modern Africa
  • India
• Upper-Level History Courses:
  • Global Christianity
  • World Religions
  • Traditional Asia
  • Freedom Struggle: Gandhi and Mandela
• Introductory Courses:
  • Introduction to Historical Studies

Publications

• Synthesizing the Vedanta: The Theology of Pierre Johanns S.J. Oxford: P. Lang, 2006.
• “Reading John through Bhakti eyes: the Hermeneutics of A. J. Appasamy.” Chapter in World Christianity in Local Context (ed. Stephen Goodwin), Continuum Press, 2009.
• “Prophetic Precepts or Divine Preeminence: Rammohan Roy vs. Joshua Marshman on the Significance of Jesus.” Chapter in Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things: William Carey and Adoniram Judson, Mission Pioneers (ed. Allen Yeh and Chris Chun), Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2013.
• “Drinking a Cup of Nectar: the Transformation of Lakshmibai Tilak.” Chapter in
  Christianity in India: Conversion, Community Development, and Religious Freedom (ed. Joel Carpenter and Rebecca Shah), Fortress Press, 2018.
• “The Calcutta School of Jesuit Indology: Its Influence upon Richard De Smet.” Chapter in Indian Christian Philosophizing: Thinking Along with and Ahead of Richard De Smet (ed. John Peter Vallabadoss), Christian World Imprints, 2025.
• Light of the East: the Calcutta School of Jesuit Indology on Hindu Advaita Non-Dualism. Institute of Jesuit Sources: Boston College, 2026.
• Light and Living Faith: the Spirituali of Italy- completed book manuscript in preparation for publication

Current Projects

• My ongoing research involves examining the lives and thought of indigenous Christians and missionaries in India who engaged deeply with Hindu cultural traditions. I also have a secondary field of research related to vernacular expressions of faith in the Italian Reformation.
• I love to travel. So far, I have visited over 25 different countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. I have lived and studied in Scotland for four years and taught in Italy for two years in the Geneva College Semester in Rome program. I participated in Geneva- sponsored travel courses to Ireland, Scotland, and Brazil.

Affiliations, e.g., membership in professional organizations, etc.

• Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of Non-Western Christianity
• American Society of Church History
• Evangelical Theological Society