Lee’s Eastern Religions Presentation to Be First of Three for Spring Religious Studies Lecture Series

Song-Chong Lee, Ph.D.

Song-Chong Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of religion, will be the first presenter for the University of Findlay Department of Religious Studies’ spring lecture series.
Lee will speak about Eastern religions, specifically regarding Yin and Yang philosophy, and sociopolitical and Christian reflection, on Thursday, March 30 at 8 p.m. in Old Main’s Ritz Auditorium. The public event will be free.
Lee is a Korean native who was born into a Confucian Buddhist family and converted to Christianity as a teenager. His pedagogical and personal philosophy centers on interfaith education.
“We are all connected. By being exposed to people of different faiths, I’ve become a better person,” said Lee during an interview for a story about a UF Islamic Traditions class he taught in 2013. “That doesn’t mean I compromise my faith, but I handle those controversial issues better. There are many, many different ways to get along with each other,” he noted.
Lee earned a Doctor of Philosophy in religion from Temple University in 2008, and a Master of Arts in Southeast Asian studies from Ohio University in 1999.
This religious studies lecture series will provide opportunities for leaders and practitioners of different faiths to expound upon their personal connections with their religion, and to illustrate their respective religion’s interaction with American culture.
Speakers will be addressing existential issues, transcendence, personal identity, meaning and vocation, spiritual development among the faithful, and how they think discrimination and prejudices against their religion can be mitigated.
Some of the questions that speakers have been asked to answer include:

• What constitutes my existence?
• What is the true reality?
• How is vocation related to my spirituality?
• How should I serve my neighbors and community?
• What are some notable and interesting differences between your devotional practice and other religions?

Others who will be included in this spring’s lecture series are Judith Wahrman, Ph.D., UF professor of education and director of the College of Education’s Outreach and Partnership program, who will speak about Judaism on April 3 in Ritz Auditorium; and Gregg Mott, instructor of English as an international language, whose April 10 presentation at Winebrenner Theological Seminary will focus on the Quakers.