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 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.

On Thursday, November 19 at 6:00 pm in Aliber 101 (2847 University Ave), Dr. Sudev Sheth, Senior Lecturer of International Studies at the Lauder Institute and the Wharton School and Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, will lecture on “Who Owns Wealth? Gandhi’s Answer to Capitalism.”

Who owns wealth, and what responsibilities come with creating it? While modern debates about capitalism often focus on markets versus government, Gandhi offered a strikingly different perspective. He argued that wealth should not be viewed as absolute private property but as a trust held on behalf of society. Drawing on the stories of some of India’s most influential business families, this lecture explores Gandhi’s idea of “trusteeship” and how it shaped generations of entrepreneurs. It concludes by considering what Gandhi’s vision might contribute to contemporary debates about business, inequality, and corporate purpose.

Dr. Sudev Sheth is Senior Lecturer of International Studies at the Lauder Institute and the Wharton School, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His research explores the history of capitalism in India through the lives of merchants, entrepreneurs, and business families. Combining literary sources, archival manuscripts, and business records, he investigates how commerce has influenced culture, politics, and urban life. His current work traces merchant life in Ahmedabad across centuries while exploring the ways business gives form to cities and ideas. He is the author of Bankrolling Empire: Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India(Cambridge University Press, 2024).