It's the Maxwell Institute podcast.

I'm Blair Hodges.

Who owns religion?

Who gets to say what's right or wrong, fact or fiction about any religious

tradition? Religious believers and scholars of religion don't always see eye to eye on these

questions. In this episode, Dr. Ravi Gupta joins us to talk about where the academic study

of religion meets the practice of religion. Dr. Gupta is himself a practicing Hindu and a scholar

of Hinduism. He was here at

BYU's Maxwell Institute in October delivering a lecture called Who Owns Religion, a Hindu

perspective on being a disciple scholar? If you ever felt uncomfortable with academic

approaches to religion or if you've wondered as a scholar how best to interact with believers

of the traditions you study, Dr. Gupta has much to offer you.

He's the Charles Red Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Religious Studies Program at Utah State University.

He's the author or editor of four books, including in a bridge translation of the Bhagavada Pirana with Kenneth Valpy,

published in 2016 by Columbia University Press.

Ravi completed his doctorate in Hindu studies at Oxford University, and a video of his Maxwell Institute guest lecture will be available on our YouTube channel soon.

Questions and comments about this and other episodes of the Maxwell Institute podcast

can be sent to me at MI Podcast at BYU.edu, And please, if you have a moment, take time to rate and

review the show in iTunes. It's literally the second least thing you could do. Ravi M. Gupta joins us

today here at the Maxwell Institute. He's a Charles Red Professor of Religious Studies and Director

of the Religious Studies program up at Utah State University. Welcome to Brigham Young University,

Ravi. Thank you. I'm really enjoying my visit here. You gave a guest lecture yesterday called Who

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