[LCM Events] MIT - Dr. Malise Ruthven - April 5, 2011 - Bustani Middle East Seminar

[Pardis Parsa]

MIT Bustani Middle East Seminar



Fundamentalist & Other Obstacles to Religious Tolerance



Dr. Malise Ruthven

Author/Historian



Tuesday, April 5, 2011

4:30 – 6:00pm

E51-395 (Tang Center, 70 Memorial Drive)

For More information http://events.mit.edu/event.html?id=13572474&date=2011/4/5



Abstract

In this talk Malise Ruthven addresses issues of religious conflict and  
asks “Is - God - or theology to blame?” After exploring the term  
“fundamentalism” he suggests that it is the reification or  
“objectification” of religious symbols, rather than theological  
differences as such, that serve to perpetuate conflicts seen as  
religious. The manner in which symbols are transformed from being  
modes of apprehending spiritual realities (howsoever these are  
understood) into becoming non-exchangeable, and non-negotiable tokens  
of individual or group identity lie at the heart of conflicts  
afflicting many religious traditions at the present time.



Bio

Malise Ruthven was born in Dublin of Hiberno-Scottish parentage. A  
former scriptwriter for the BBC he holds an MA in English Literature  
and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University.  
He has taught Islamic studies, cultural history and comparative  
religion at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland,  Birkbeck College,  
University of London, the University of California, San Diego,  
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and at the Colorado College, Colorado  
Springs.

He is the author of Islam in the World (OUP, 1984, 1991, 2006), an  
overview of Islamic faith and history, Torture:The Grand Conspiracy  
(Weidenfeld, 1978); Cairo (Time-Life, 1980); Traveller Through Time: A  
Photographic Journey with Freya Stark (Viking, 1986); The Divine  
Supermarket: Shopping for God in America (William Morrow nominated for  
the 1989 Thomas Cook Travel Award); A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie  
and the Wrath of Islam (Chatto & Windus, 1989); Islam:A Very Short  
Introduction (OUP, 1997, 2000 and published in several languages, A  
Fury for God: The Islamist Attack on America (Granta, 2002);   
Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning (OUP 2004); and A Historical  
Atlas of the Islamic World [with Azim Nanji] (OUP/Harvard University  
Press, 2004 - Winner of the 2005 US Middle East Outreach Council Book  
Award). Gnosticism: A Very Short Introduction, commissioned by OUP  
will appear in 2012 along with Encountering Islam: a book of essays,  
to be published by I B Tauris. Ruthven’s   review essays and blogs  
appear regularly in  the New York Review of Books. In 2004 London's  
Prospect magazine ranked Malise Ruthven among the 100 top public  
intellectuals in Britain.




Seminars will be held in building E51, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge.
http://whereis.mit.edu/?q=E51-145&zoom=16&lat=42.36226996640223&lng=-71.08632802963257&open=object-E51&maptype=mit


Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar: http://web.mit.edu/CIS/bustani/bustani2011spring.htm

contact: pardisp at mit.edu

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/lebanon-events/attachments/20110324/eeb3e590/attachment.htm