The Comparison Project

On Thursday September 24 at 6:00 pm in Aliber 101 (2847 University Ave), we host our first event of our 2026–2028 series on Prophets & Profits, a panel dialogue featuring local insurance industry executives.

Insurance does more than calculate probabilities and pay claims. It determines how uncertainty, vulnerability, and financial loss are shared—and who will be protected when catastrophe strikes. Decisions about pricing, coverage, exclusions, claims, and capital therefore involve not only technical and commercial judgments, but also fundamental questions of fairness, responsibility, trust, and human dignity.

This opening panel in the Prophets & Profits series will bring together experienced insurance executives to explore how their personal moral and religious convictions inform the difficult decisions they face as leaders. How do they balance actuarial discipline and financial sustainability with compassion and social responsibility? Are there ethical limits to risk-based pricing, even when it is economically justified? What responsibilities do insurers have to individuals and communities facing risks they cannot reasonably bear alone?

Drawing on both personal experience and professional expertise, the panelists will consider how these tensions shape their leadership, their organizations, the insurance industry, and the communities they serve—especially in a world confronting growing climate volatility, healthcare costs, and interconnected economic risks.

On Thursday, October 15 at 6:00 pm in Aliber 101 (2847 University Ave), Dr. Jill DeTemple, Professor and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Southern Methodist University, will lecture on “Capabilities: What International Economic Development Models Explain about Health, Wealth, Religion, and Community in the Early 21st Century United States.”

Is the United States healthy? Is it wealthy? How do we know? This lecture employs approaches used to measure well-being in “developing” nations to explore the relationship between health, wealth, flourishing, and community in religious and economic contexts. While Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Robert Putnam worried about the instrumentalized, rationalized place of religion or its absence in capitalist systems, economists, philosophers, and practitioners of international economic development proposed integrated models of economic advancement that framed prosperity in terms of flourishing, community, and capabilities often tied to religious ideals. What might this mean for the contemporary United States when religious, financial, and social systems are struggling in the face of political polarization, globalization, and demographic and environmental change?

Dr. Jill DeTemple is Professor and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University.  She received her B. A. in Asian Studies from Bowdoin College, her M. T. S. in Christianity and Culture from Harvard Divinity School, and her Ph.D. in Religion and Culture from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Her research interests include faith-based economic development, Latin American religions, Pentecostalism, and the use of dialogue in classrooms to promote intellectual humility, conviction, civic engagement, and deep learning.  She is the author or co-author of three books, most recently The Dialogic Classroom: Revolutionary Listening for Curiosity, Engagement, and Deep Learning (Taylor & Francis, 2025), which focuses on a dialogic pedagogy that she hopes will help make college better for everyone.

On Saturday, October 17, we will celebrate the Hindu festival of Navaratri from 5:00–7:00 pm at the Hindu Cultural and Educational Center (1960 E. Army Post Rd.)

Navaratri is a nine-night Hindu festival worshipping nine different forms of the Goddess Durga. For our site visit, we will join the Hindu Cultural and Educational Center for a bhajan, including songs and dances for different Hindu deities. The bhajan will conclude with aarti (offering of flame to the gods) and prashad (meal of blessed foods).

On Sunday, October 25, we will celebrate the annual holiday of Boun Ok Phansa (time TBD, but probably beginning in the mid-late morning) with the Lao Buddhist temple, Wat Lao Buddhavath (1804 E Park Ave).

Boun Ok Phansa celebrates the end of the three-month rain retreat (Vassa), during which time Theravada Buddhist monks traditionally remained indoors at a single location (during the monsoon season) to devote themselves to study and meditation.

More details soon to follow.