Search

Engaging Islamic Tradition in Ms. Marvel

News

By Francesco Piraino. Edited by Aaron Michael Ullrey. The following Research Reflection, by Francesco Piraino , CSWR Associate, is part of an ongoing series spotlighting the academic study of religions. Comics such as Ms. Marvel, which features a Muslim...

Islam after the Arab Spring: A Conversation with journalist Graeme Wood

News

Journalist Graeme Wood, author of a widely-circulated article on the Islamic State that appeared in The Atlantic, participated in a by-invitation-only workshop at the Center on Monday, April 13th. Over thirty graduate students and faculty members attended...

Video: Piety and Patienthood in Medieval Islam

News

How did pious medieval Muslims experience health and disease? Rooted in the prophet’s experiences with medicine and healing, Muslim pietistic literature developed cosmologies in which physical suffering and medical interventions interacted with religious...

Video: Islam in Nigeria: A Conversation in Preparation for the Visit of the Sultan of Sokoto

News

On October 3, 2011, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammadu Sa'adu Abubakar III, the 20th Sultan of Sokoto, will visit Harvard University. In preview of this distinguished visit, four experts discussed the historical, cultural, and religious significance of Islam...

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

News

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...

Video: Author Discussion: "We God's People: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in the World of Nations"

News

A discussion with Jocelyne Cesari, HDS T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding, on her recent publication, We God's People: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in the World of Nations. David F. Holland (HDS) and...

Audio: Covenant and Covenants in the Qur'an—The Inherent Pluralism of Islam's Sacred Scripture

News

The HDS Society for Comparative Theology presented this lecture by Joseph Lumbard, Assistant Professor of Classical Islam at Brandeis University. The question of the covenant in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures was among the most fertile topics for...

Video: What Can the Christian Category of Natural Theology Tell Us About Islam?

News

Robert Morrison, Associate Professor of Religion at Bowdoin College, spoke about the Christian category of natural theology and how it relates to Islam at the Center for the Study of World Religions on November 7, 2013.

Seeing God Everywhere

News

In this presentation, titled "Seeing God Everywhere," Munjed Murad, a Th.D. student at the Harvard Divinity School and a resident and Junior Fellow of the Center for the Study of World Religions, explored the concept of theophany in the natural world as...

Growing as a Scholar at the CSWR

News

Shaireen Rasheed has been a visiting scholar for the 2014-15 academic year at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, where she has worked on a manuscript that explores the ethical concept of sexuality, Islam, and the war...

Towards a Muslim Poetics of Nature

News

In this lecture, Professor Mohammed Rustom examined the Islamic understanding of nature with specific reference to Islamic metaphysics and the contemporary environmental crisis. The lecture consisted of a poem and its commentary. Entitled "Islam and the...

Axel Takács: Becoming a Comparative Theologian

News

When describing himself and his academic studies, doctoral student Axel Takács makes a certain, subtle distinction: "I don't want to say I study comparative theology," he says. "To say that I am studying to become a comparative theologian is a better way...