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Pathways of Understanding: Exploring the Intersections of Religious Studies and Islam

James W. Morris

James W. Morris
Professor of Islamic Studies
Department of Theology, Boston College
Monday, February 19 at 4:15, Hicks Mural Room 312

The rapid spread of Islam throughout Asia and Africa, as a genuinely "world religion," in the post-Mongol period was accompanied by distinctively universalist theological emphases and extraordinarily diverse and creative forms of locally adapted ritual and practice. Today those foundational forms of Islamic thought and the Islamic humanities-radically different from the dualistic historicist ideologies popularized in today's media-offer helpful perspectives for deepening the phenomenological approaches of modern-day religious studies; for approaching genuine inter-faith understanding; and for constructive Muslim responses to the challenges posed by recent pseudo-religious popular ideologies.

Sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Offices of the President and Provost Swarthmore College