Interreligious conflict is once again at center stage in our geopolitical consciousness and, with it, many questions about the role of scripture in that conflict. Do the respective claims of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holy texts contribute to the violence between the various communities that read them? Or do they provide a basis for solidarity between the three Abrahamic religions? In this talk, David Nirenberg, the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta professor of medieval history and social thought and founding director of the Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society, will examine how the Qur'an, Torah, and New Testament have been read at moments in history—including our own—in order to consider the politics of conflict and community among the "peoples of the Book."
Professor Nirenberg has focused on the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures constitute themselves by interrelating with or thinking about each other. He has written extensively on the interrelations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; his 1996 Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle received numerous honors, including the 1996 Premio del Rey Prize from the American Historical Association, the 1998 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association, and the 2000 John Nicholas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America. His Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition was published by W. W. Norton in February 2013.
$20/person general admission
$10/recent graduate (College graduates of the past 10 years and professional school graduates of the past 5 years.)
Registration
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Deadline: 5/16/2013
Program
6:00 PM-7:00 PM: Registration and reception