Frederick John Streng (September 30, 1933 – June 21, 1993) was a noted scholar in Buddhist-Christian studies, author, editor, leader of religious organizations, and Professor of the History of Religions, Southern Methodist University in Texas from 1974 to 1993.
He wrote his doctoral thesis about Buddhist thinker Nagarjuna, which was later published as Emptiness - A Study of Religious Meaning (Abingdon Press, 1967) and became required reading for leading philosophers and theologians in America.
[4] He studied at Benares Hindu University in India as a Fulbright scholar from 1961-1962, received a National Endowment of the Humanities grant in 1979,[citation needed] and also won Carnegie and Ford fellowships.
[citation needed] He was a board member of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches and past president of the North Texas Association of Unitarian Universalist Societies.
[5] One of his last public appearances before his death was at the Krost Symposium on Salvation at Texas Lutheran College in 1993, where he spoke of "shared religious intent" between Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Zen Buddhist traditions, which is a transformative power that transcends biological, social or psychological life, and a freedom of choice which is not a result of physical, biological or social forces, but makes the ultimate transformation of religious salvation possible.