The Constantinian Compromise: Senators, Bishops and the Emperor in Late Antique Rome
Given the historic role played by the victorious Constantine in spreading Christianity, it is ironic that senatorial aristocrats were more cooperative with Constantine than were the early fourth-century bishops of the city. Although the bishops of Rome and the clergy, along with other Christians, benefitted greatly from the restoration of their property and the recognition...
“Surely There is No Fear of God in This Place” – The Biblical Plagues and OUR Plague: An Anthropocentric “Theology” and a Lesson for Our Times
**Please note this talk has been postponed to Wednesday, December 1 at 12pm via Zoom** The onset of the coronavirus brought with it a slew of perverse efforts to identify the ‘sinful’ behaviors for which the plague was God’s punishment. Through an analysis of “Vehaya im Shamoa”(Deut.11:13-21) I offer an alternative understanding of...
Black and White Color Symbolism in Early Christian Apocalyptic Literature
ZoomReconciling the modern categories of race, ethnicity, and religion with ancient examples of identity formation continues to befuddle historians of antiquity. This problem of fusing disparate ancient and modern conceptual...
Caste Marketing: How Hindu Rituals Sell Brahminical Supremacy
Zoom"Caste marketing" can be understood in several ways: a description of how companies market products based on a caste profile of their users or “caste” groups as targeted market. This...
Hearing the Listeners: Jain Perspectives from India’s Islamic Past. A Conversation with Steven M. Vose and Audrey Truschke, moderated by Alka Patel
ZoomPerhaps uniquely in South Asia, Jains wrote voluminously about their interactions with Muslim rulers from the Delhi Sultanate to the Mughal Empire. Their writings present us with unparalleled views of...
The Jewish Discovery of Islam Revisited
Haines 39/ZoomFrom the oldest European Christian engagements with the Qur’an in the Middle Ages through the advent of modern academic approaches to the Muslim scripture, scholars have frequently seen qur’anic narratives...
Study of Religion: Spring Snack Social
Kaplan 365
A Conversation with Michael Schur
314 Royce HallMichael Schur is a television producer, writer, actor and author of How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Questions. With Pamela Hieronymi, Professor at UCLA Department of...
Do Robots Have Souls? Intelligent Machines, Digital Humans, and the Future of Technology
ZoomIn this lecture, Sylvester A. Johnson interprets the work of Ibn Rushd (“Averroës"), the twelfth-century Islamic scholar of Andalusia who achieved renown as the ‘father’ of secularism, in order to...
Song of Songs, Time after Time
Haines 39/ZoomThe Song of Songs has been subject to numerous and varying interpretive approaches since its emergence. Drawing from her recently published book, Perils of Wisdom: The Scriptural Solomon in Jewish...