Jonathan Klawans talks about the Christmas-ification of Hanukkah in BU Today.
A Ho-Ho-Ho Hanukkah? The Christmas-ification of a Jewish holiday By Rich Barlow Would Jonathan Klawans keep Mensch on a Bench on his shelf? “If somebody sent it to us, probably,” he says genially. The College of Arts & Sciences professor of religion can even envision buying the Hanukkah themed doll-cum-book—a twist on the Christmas Elf […]
Frank Korom receives a BU Arts Initiative Grant to bring Hindu deities to campus.
The study of visual piety and material religion has become a topic of immense concern in recent years. To enable his students in his course on Hinduism in the spring of 2015 to appreciate the popular iconography of the Hindu pantheon, Korom will travel to India over the winter break to assemble a variety of […]
Stephen Katz receives Honorary Degree from the University of Warwick.
Prof. Steven Katz received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Warick in July. Prof. Sean Hand introduced Prof. Katz. Vice Chancellor Cox made the presentation on behalf of the University.
Kecia Ali interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Many Views Of Muhammad, As A Man And As A Prophet by NPR Staff October 19, 2014 7:01 PM ET The Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was one of the most influential men in human history — but there’s little we can say about his life with historical certainty. The details of his life […]
Interfaith Engagement Series Lecture by Adam Seligman
Thursday, October 2, 2014 5:00-6:30pm BU School of Theology 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room B-24 CEDAR: Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion Join us for a lecture and conversation with Dr. Seligman who will help us understand just what engaging with difference may mean as an alternative to the many efforts of “finding common ground” or […]
Adam Seligman’s “Religious Education and the Challenge of Pluralism” has just been published.
The essays in this volume offer a groundbreaking comparative analysis of religious education, and state policies towards religious education in seven different countries and in the European Union as a whole. They pose a crucial question: can religious education contribute to a shared public sphere and foster solidarity across different ethnic and religious communities? In […]
Kecia Ali’s The Lives of Muhammad (Harvard) has just been published.
A “Top 10 in Religion” pick from Publisher’s Weekly, the book explores the changing ways Muhammad’s life has been told over the centuries. It argues that despite the common perception that Muslims cling to archaic ideas about their prophet, in fact many ideas about Muhammad that contemporary Muslims hold developed over the last two centuries […]
Frank Korom will be participating in a workshop on Sufi shrines in the “valley of saints,” located in Khuldabad, India.
The event in August of 2014 is being sponsored by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (http://caorc.org) that earlier funded Korom’s workshop on Sufism as a mediating force in South Asia. The goal is to bring together junior and senior scholars in this field of research to exchange ideas and research methodologies that will […]
Jerusalem: How Did It Get to Be the Holy City?
Zank’s class ponders centuries of conflict, zeal, and spin By Susan Seligson From accounts carved in stone thousands of years ago to today’s New York Times, Jerusalem has always been headline-worthy. It is a beautiful, vibrant, modern metropolis where every ancient byway tells a story of faith, siege, prosperity, and grief. To study Jerusalem—its tumultuous […]
Ninth International Conference on Daoist Studies held at BU.
Led by Assistant Professor Tom Michael and Emeritus Professor Livia Kohn, the Department of Religion co-sponsored the Ninth International Conference on Daoist Studies this May, bringing together scholars of this still-vital ancient Chinese tradition from all over the world.http://sites.bu.edu/daoiststudies/