Massimo Introvigne
| Massimo Introvigne | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 14, 1955 Rome |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation | Sociologist, Author |
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist and intellectual property consultant. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of tens of books and articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. He is also a consultant on intellectual property rights. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the "Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions" of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In June 2012, he was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as chairperson of the newly instituted Observatory of Religious Liberty, created by the Ministry in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
Born in Rome on June 14, 1955, Massimo Introvigne reported in a partially autobiographical paper presented at the 2008 yearly conference of the American Academy of Religion in Chicago how his interest in non-Christian religions dates back to his reading as a young boy of the novels of Emilio Salgari, Rudyard Kipling, and Luigi Ugolini (1891–1980, the author of the 1950 Italian novel L'isola non-trovata), which included references to Hinduism, Islam and other religions not generally well-known at that time in Italy. The popular encyclopedia Le grandi religioni del mondo (The Great Religions of the World), published in 1964 by the leading publishing house Rizzoli, was – according to the same paper – also an influence on the young Introvigne, who devotedly purchased its monthly instalments at age nine. Also in the Chicago paper, Introvigne mentions the crucial importance of his Jesuit high school, the Istituto sociale in Turin, Italy, between 1970–1973. As other Italian high schools in these years, that one hosted a vigorous political debate, and Introvigne attended it in the same years of future left-wing Italian leader Piero Fassino and centrist politician Michele Vietti (whose cousin, the scholar of Islam Silvia Scaranari, he will eventually marry in 1982). At the same school he met the Catholic conservative organization Alleanza Cattolica which he joined in 1972. He went on to obtain a laurea degree (equivalent to a master's degree) in Philosophy from the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome, a Vatican-accredited institution, and a laurea degree in Law from the University of Turin, Italy. During the Gregoriana years he also attended (as a layman, i.e. not as a seminarian studying for priesthood) the Catholic Almo Collegio Capranica, where he had as fellow students the future Archbishops Rino Fisichella, Nikola Eterović, and many others who will later become prominent figures of the Catholic Church. His dissertation at the University of Turin was on John Rawls, and was later published in 1983 by Giuffré as I due principi di giustizia nella teoria di Rawls, the first work on Rawls in Italian. The dissertation was directed by Italian philosopher Enrico di Robilant, with whom Introvigne worked between 1979 and 1985 as an assistant lecturer.
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