John C. Holt, Ph.D. 1977 (History of Religions), the Divinity School Alumnus of the Year for 2007, will deliver his lecture on “The Spirit(s) of the Place: Buddhism and the Religious Culture of Laos” on Thursday Nov. 1, 2007 at 4:00 pm in the Swift Lecture Hall, 1025 E. 58th Street.

Holt, the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College, is a leading scholar of Asian religious traditions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. Named the alumnus of the year by the Board of Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union,  Holt has written several books about Buddhism, including Discipline: the Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapitaka, A Guide to the Buddhist Religion, and Buddha in the Crown, which received the American Academic Book Award for Excellence in 1992

Holt’s most recent book, The Buddhist Visnu, analyzes the assimilation and transformation of the Hindu cult of Visnu by the Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka. A reception will immediately follow The Alumnus of the Year lecture.

For more information on Holt, please visit the Divinity School’s website.