Three large pieces of framed Egyptian art color the office walls of Jon Michael Spencer, and an Indian scarf lies in a swirl of rich reds and maroons on his desk. USC's new Professor of Religious Studies with a courtesy appointment in English has been deeply affected by his travels.

"I do not prepare before class;" Spencer said to an interviewer, "I prepare always as a lifestyle." That lifestyle has involved extensive journeying across the African and Asian continents. Such movement is important, Spencer urged, "because creativity and insight are dependent on the ability to make bridges between disparate aspects of history and culture--we can better know by comparison."

One such comparison Spencer drew was between the rhythms of India and Africa. Despite the vast cultural waters that separate these two regions, what Spencer found is that their "similarities in rhythmicity" indicate "we're more alike than we're different." Spencer bridged his own musical and theological interests when he added the greater lesson learned, namely, that "from God's purview, all of reality is one; there is a singleness of aliveness."

Unless Spencer's self-portrait sound too high-flown, it is important to note that his philosophy has found concrete realization in fourteen published books and in rewarding teaching experiences at six different institutions, ranging from small, private to large, state schools.

In the classroom, Spencer brings to bear all the knowledge he has gathered on his travels. He attempts to mold students who engage, instead of merely encounter, knowledge. "Engagement suggests an active involvement with the knowledge, and that's what I'm after. When you engage something you will be changed," Spencer said. Here, too, the results speak for themselves--"There are a handful of students who, after ten years, we're still part of each others' lives." When asked to contrast the students he has taught at a half-dozen institutions, Spencer summed his life's lesson, "I don't try to pretend that the differences aren't there, but I am training myself to see the beauty beneath the surface in all things."