I was attending a class on religion and world politics with Brian Hehir, a professor and McArthur Fellow known for his Socratic style of teaching. He started the class by asking, "Is the role of religion in poeple's lives likely to increase, decrease, or remain the same?'
Sixty per cent of the class said it would decrease at a rapid rate, 35% said it would be the same, and only 5% said that it was likely to increase. I was in the 'rapidly decrease' camp when I raised my hand...."
Akhil Gupta, Author of Bridges Across Humanity
Founder and Director, UEF
Founder and Director
I was inspired to conceive of the UEF mission during my two years of fellowship at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative(ALI) during 2015 and 2016, which I joined after retiring from The Blackstone Group as Senior Managing Director. The University’s rich intellectual resources crystallized seminal insights which spurred me to start my foundation to gather and share wisdom with a wider audience. I have recently returned to Harvard’s ALI program as an Impact Leader in Residence. This will enable me to accelerate UEF’s global impact.
My first publication, Bridges across Humanity – Many religions, Same Learnings, got published in April 2023. This book highlights 54 common themes across all religions. Yes 54!!!
I am working on a few more publications related to human flourishing
"Meaning-Making that helps"
‘[T]his text creates a scaffold for meaning-making that helps us in our common quest for better, more peaceful lives as individuals, and as a global community.
Tiffany L Steinwert, Dean for Religious and Spiritual Life, Stanford University
"Convincing proof of more similarities than differences"
‘There isn’t a more potent driving force in human affairs than religion. As this book convincingly proves, there are more similarities than differences across seemingly diverse faiths..."
Hamilton (Tony) James, Former Executive Vice Chairman, The Blackstone Group
"A riveting journey!"
A riveting journey across the world’s major religions, this book shows the commonalities that exist among us—and how those similarities must serve as the roadmap to a shared, prosperous future.
Jacqueline Novogrtaz, Best Selling Author of The Blue Sweater
it would be predictable or merely skimming the surface. But this is not the case. Akhil Gupta and his team worked very hard on each chapter and each brings intelligent and informed possibilities to the fore. Each chapter poses similarities and some differences in a way that invites conversation and further exploration of what any given chapter proposes.
Akhil's personal voice is everywhere in this book, as he reminisces on the importance of learning about interfaith generosity when he was a child and all the way up to his years of study and learning at Stanford and Harvard amid and after his successful business career."
-- An excerpt from the foreword by Francis X Clooney S J
Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University
Knowledge acquired by human beings has been increasing at an exponential rate for over a century. However, we have yet to make commensurate progress in human flourishing.
This is because knowledge has been getting increasingly fragmented and siloed. The UEF aims to integrate knowledge across the silos of time, civilizations, geographies and academic disciplines of social and physical sciences, without any pride of ownership, and validated through lived experiences from across the globe.
We will make actionable insights from integrating knowledge available to the masses to usher humanity into a second and truer enlightenment leading to true human flourishing.
The UEF’s work focuses on the research and dissemination of ideas around human flourishing and religious literacy. Our key insight is that we can truly flourish simply by engaging in our three deepest longings – Loving, Learning, and Playing in everything that we do.
The Internet has enabled us to communicate with a global audience and has provided us a historic opportunity to disseminate our insights to a very wide audience.
We aim to inspire and engage our readers through dynamic social media content, blogs, and events such as seminars and bootcamps
Common Themes Across All Religions
Stay tuned for the latest UEF news.
Knowledge acquired by human beings has been increasing at an exponential rate for over a century. However, we have yet to make commensurate progress in human flourishing. This is because knowledge has been getting increasingly fragmented and sits mostly in silos. The UEF believes that if we can integrate knowledge across the silos of time, civilizations, geographies and academic disciplines.
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