Video

Adam Afterman smiling into the camera

List Lecture in Jewish Studies: Adam Afterman: Kabbalistic Neoplatonism: Divine Emanation and Mystical Integration

October 13, 2023

Center for the Study of World Religions hosted our annual List Lecture Speaker Adam Afterman. Dr. Adam Afterman is a Professor at the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University, specializing in Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah. He is a senior scholar and director of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue and a senior fellow of the Kogod Center for the Renewal of Jewish Thought at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.... Read more about List Lecture in Jewish Studies: Adam Afterman: Kabbalistic Neoplatonism: Divine Emanation and Mystical Integration

Raashid Goyal smiling into the camera

The Islamic Conception of Arabness, A New Reading of the Qur’ānic Discourse on the a‘rāb

July 27, 2023

Center for the Study of World Religions hosted a talk by Raashid Goyal, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen, Germany. In his talk, Goyal proposes that the term a‘rāb signified “Arabs” and not “nomads,” and that the former entity were originally considered as apart from the nascent community of believers.

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Decorative Representation of Eranos Conference

Video: Eranos Conference 2023, "Ideas and Influences on Eros"

June 14, 2023

Professor Charles Stang, CSWR Director delivered a lecture entitled, “Apophasis and Angelology: Henry Corbin’s Neoplatonism” at the 2023 Eranos conference in Switzerland. 

“This is not merely a minor chapter in the history of ideas, but rather a case study in how Neoplatonism has come to serve as a perennial source, or resource, for the reification of modern thought. … Throughout his work [Corbin] champions the Platonic tradition, over against what he perceives to be the deadening influence of Aristotelianism, Sunni orthodoxy, and modern materialism, secularism, and historicism. For Corbin, Plato – or Aflatûn as he is known in Arabic – is the sage whose name stands for what is most worth preserving in the philosophical tradition, especially when wed to the prophetology of the Abrahamic traditions, or ‘peoples of the book.’” 

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Photo of Tracy K. Smith

Video: Poetry Craft Talk and Reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith

May 8, 2023

On Monday, May 8, 2023, CSWR Resident Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of Peripheries, Sherah Bloor hosted a Poetry Craft Talk and Reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Tracy K. Smith for a capacity Zoom audience.  "During the Zoom lecture, Smith read aloud not just her own poetry, but the works of poets with parallel themes to her own: divinity, healing, history, race, and love—to name a few." (Quote provided courtesy of HDS Communications Intern, by Cecily Powell Tolleson. Full story here.)

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Purple and turquise marble pattern

Video: Are Psychedelics Theologically Significant for Judaism?

April 27, 2023

On April 27, 2023, The Center for the Study of World Religions co-hosted this discussion with panelists Sam S. B. Shonkoff, Taube Family Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union. Melila Hellner-Eshed, professor of Jewish mysticism in the Department of Jewish Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson, author and affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary.

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Natalie Dyer looking at the camera

Video: Reiki, Energy Medicine, and Post-Materialism

April 5, 2023

Center for the Study of World Religions Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani led a conversation with Dr. Natalie Dyer on April 5, 2023, titled "Reiki, Energy Medicine, and Post-Materialism." Dr. Dyer is a research scientist with Connor Whole Health at University Hospitals, the President of the Center for Reiki Research, and a practicing Reiki master. In this discussion they talked about the role of Reiki and energy healing in improving health and well-being, the possibility of a non-materialist scientific paradigm, and Dr. Dyer’s latest research on universal love.

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Shaul Magid

Video: Judeopessimism: Antisemitism, History, and Critical Race Theory with Shaul Magid

April 3, 2023
On April 3, 2023, Shaul Magid delivered the Albert & Vera List Fund for Jewish Studies Lecture at the Center for the Study of World Religions. In this talk Magid explored the relationship Critical Race Theory and Black Studies have with Jewish Studies, in general, and research on antisemitism, in particular. Magid makes the case that antisemitism can be better theorized through engagement with theories of anti-Blackness, particularly Afropessimism. It focuses on how Jews write about antisemitism, how it is perceived in contemporary America, and how this discussion relates to race and Jewish identity.... Read more about Video: Judeopessimism: Antisemitism, History, and Critical Race Theory with Shaul Magid