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
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
The after effects of the 1/6 Insurrection continue to reverberate across America. Since that fateful and disturbing day, pushbacks against the teaching of race in America, abortion rollbacks, and Covid denialism have swept across the country. What has been the role of evangelical Christianity in fueling these issues? Professor Butler’s lecture will explore the historical antecedents of Evangelical beliefs and political action leading up to today’s troubling times, and the prospects for the future of religion, peace, and political action in America.... Read more about Video: Peril to Democracy: Racism and Nationalism in America
This lecture by Elliot Wolfson will examine the viability of a kabbalistic ideal of transformation from the vantage point of identifying repentance as the hypernomian foundation of the nomos, the grounding of the law in the ground that exceeds the law of the ground. I argue that the hallmark of religious nihilism is not antinomianism but the promulgation of the belief that impiety is the gesture of supreme piety. I will explore the subject of hypernomianism by a close analysis of the concept of infinitivity and its engendering in Derridean terms the law beyond...
On February 25, Vivian Liska, Professor of German literature and director of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, delivered the annual List Lecture in Jewish Studies at the CSWR.
The Jew as archetypal migrant is a pervasive trope in philosophy, politics, and the arts. Since Biblical times, the condition of exile was a source of discrimination, oppression, and suffering. Recent philosophical discourse, however, often regards it as the embodiment of a glorious deterritorialization that overlooks the hardship inherent in exile and migration....
Race and religion are among the best predictors of how Americans choose a president. Race and religion are also bases for political compromises that call into question our moral credibility on issues ranging from voting rights to police brutality.
Cornell Brooks and Todne Thomas discuss how we demonstrate courage when we decline or choose to compromise during the Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice at the HDS Center for...
The Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, and examined the social/political and theological implications of whiteness as an impediment to living God’s justice.
Professor Guy Stroumsa delivered the 2016 Albert and Vera List Fund for Jewish Studies Lecture on the topic “Christianity and the God of Israel: Henri Bergson, Simone Weil, Emmanuel Levinas.”... Read more about Video: Christianity and the God of Israel
On Thursday, October 1, 2015, we were fortunate to have with us at the Center Professor Steven Kepnes, Professor of World Religions and Jewish Studies at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. He is also chair of the religion department at Colgate. On Thursday evening, October 1, Professor Kepnes gave the fourth annual Albert and Vera List Fund for Jewish Studies Lecture, “Jewish Liturgy as Jewish Theology.” Both the video of the lecture and a...
In the fourth annual List Lecture in Jewish Studies, Professor Steve Kepnes outlines a number of ways in which Jewish liturgy can be seen as "Theo-Drama" with specific analyses of the Kedushah, (Holiness) and Hallel (Praise) liturgies.
Joel S. Kaminsky, Professor of Religion and Morningstar Family Professor in Jewish Studies at Smith College, delivers the 2015 Albert and Vera List Fund for Jewish Studies Lecture.... Read more about Video: "Would You Impugn My Justice?"
The second annual Dana McLean Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice was presented by Kiran Martin, founding director of Asha, which works for urban health and development and women's empowerment and education in 50 slum colonies of Delhi, India.
