Theology in Arabic Seminar Series

Topic: A Classical Islamic Appreciation for the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali

Presenter: Rodrigo Adem

When and Where: CCAS Boardroom (ICC 141), April 14, 2023, 3:00 PM ET

Flyer

Topic: On the Triune Nature of God (Sinai Arabic MS 154)
Presenter: Ryann Craig
Moderated by: Dr. Rodrigo Adem
When: Thursday, April 21, 2022, 12:30 PM
RSVP Required

About:
On the Triune Nature of God (Sinai Arabic MS 154) is the earliest known defense of the Chalcedonian faith in Arabic, dated to 755 or 788 CE. Its author—perhaps a monk or priest—likely had some informal or formal contact with other desert monasteries and clearly knows the Quran. The apologist uses the theological Arabic of his surroundings, including Quranic idioms and direct citations from the Quran, to put forth his defense of the Christian faith.

Topic: Free Will in the Theology of Maimonides (Rabbi Mūsā b. Maymūn)
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem
Moderated by: Ryann Craig
When: Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 4:00 PM
RSVP Required

About:
Rabbi Mūsā b. Maymūn (1138-1204 CE), known to the Jewish Rabbinical tradition as Rambam, and as Maimonides in Latin, was a vastly influential twelfth-century commentator and systematizer of Jewish law and beliefs, a physician in the Ayyubid court of medieval Egypt, and philosopher in the Greco-Arabic tradition. This lecture will present Arabic readings and translations from his famous Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn (Guide for the Perplexed), where he discusses the topic of free will from a comparativist perspective and explores the philosophical implications of creative providence in monotheistic religion.

Topic: Free Will in the Theology of Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem
When: Friday, November 5, 2021, 3:00 PM
RSVP Required

About:
Ibn Rushd was a twelfth-century Muslim jurisprudent, physician, and philosopher from Cordoba, Spain, commonly known as a celebrated commentator of Aristotle in the Latin scholastic tradition by the name of Averroes. This lecture will present Arabic readings and translations from his Kashf ʿan manāhij al-adilla, where he discusses the topic of free will from an Islamic theological perspective.

Topic: Bishop Thawūdus (Theodore) Abū Qurra on Free Will
When: Friday, October 3, 2021, 3:00 PM
RSVP Required

Flyer

About:
Thawdūrus (Theodore) Abū Qurra was among the first Christians known to have written in Arabic. Likely born in Edessa, he was active as Bishop of Harran (modern-day Urfa, Turkey) in the first half of the ninth century CE, and authored a number of theological and philosophical treatises in Arabic and Greek which have garnered the interest of a growing number of academics over the past century. This lecture includes readings and translations of his Maymar fī’l-hurriyya (“On the nature of free will”).