Diana Lobel
147 Bay State Road, Suite 507
Boston, MA 02215
T: 617.353.2863; F: 617.358.3087
E: dnlobel@bu.edu
Fall 2007 Office Hours: Thursday, 3:45-5:30 by appointment

Bio
Associate Professor of Religion and Coordinator for Philosophy of Religion, Division of Religious and Theological Studies. Ph.D., Harvard University (1995); MTS, Harvard Divinity School (1982); BA, Oberlin College (1979). Previously held Anna Smith Fine Chair in Judaic Studies, Department of Religious Studies, Rice University (1997-99); Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University (1999-2000); Fellow at Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, University of Maryland at College Park, Lecturer in University Honors Program (1996-97). Joined the Department of Religion in the fall of 2001.

Professor Lobel teaches courses in comparative religious thought and the Jewish and Islamic traditions. Her courses touch especially upon the intersection of philosophy and religion and questions of spirituality and religious experience. She is also fascinated by midrash––the dynamic and playful rabbinic interpretation of the Bible––and the way Jewish tradition continually renews itself through the ongoing process of interpretation.

Professor Lobel has special interest in Islamic thought and the Judeo-Arabic tradition––Jewish literature written in Arabic in the medieval Islamic world. She has written extensively on the intertwined traditions of Jewish and Islamic mysticism and philosophy, particularly the impact of Sufi mysticism on Jewish thought. Her publications include A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart (Philadelphia, 2006); Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of Religious Experience in Judah Ha-Levi's Kuzari, (Albany, 2000)," “On the Lookout: A Sufi Riddle in Sulami, Qushayri, and Bahya Ibn Paquda.” Studies in Islamic and Arabic Culture, Volume II, ed. Binyamin Abrahamov. (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 2006). “Taste and See that the Lord is Good: Halevi’s God Revisited.” Be’erot Yitzhaq: Studies in Memory of Isadore Twersky. Edited by Jay M. Harris. Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA:, 2005“Divine Immanence and the World to Come in the Kuzari" Esoteric and Exoteric Aspects in Judeo-Arabic Cuture Eds Benjamin H. Hary and Haggai Ben-Shammai. Leiden: Brill,2006,, A Dwelling Place for the Shekhinah" (Jewish Quarterly Review Vol. 90, 1-2 (1999). “’Silence is Praise to You’”: On Negative Theology, Looseness of Expression, and Religious Experience (American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly Volume 76, No. 1, Spring 2002).

She is currently working on several research projects. Quest for the Absolute, East and West explores key concepts in Eastern and Western religious thought: the nature of the Absolute; the centrality of beauty, interconnectedness, and unity-in-difference; the role of reason and intuition; the relationship between negative theology and religious experience. The Quest for God and The Good is an exploration of the intertwined concepts of God and Good across philosophical and religious traditions. Finally, Professor Lobel is engaged in a project on prayer and philosophical mysticism, focusing on Avicenna’s Treatise on Prayer and its reverberations in medieval Islamic and Jewish thought.

Complete CV

Books

	Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of Religious Experience in Judah Ha-Levi's Kuzari By Diana Lobel State University of New York Press June 1, 2000 Buy it now from Amazon.com!
	A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart. By Diana Lobel University of Pennsylvania Press November 1, 2006 Buy it now from Amazon.com!

Courses (Click for course materials)
CAS RN 100 Religion and Culture
CAS RN 102 Sacred Journeys
CAS RN 219 Mysticism and Philosophy: Medieval Jewish Perspectives
CAS RN 245 Introduction to Religious Thought
CAS RN 323/623 Classical Jewish Thought
CAS RN 336/636 Medieval Jewish Philosophy
CAS RN 452 Topics in Religious Thought
GRS RN 784 Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions-East