Georgetown’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies is proud to continue its seminars on Theology in Arabic, fostering greater understanding through intimate encounters with diverse forms of religious expression in Arabic. These recurring seminars invite scholars to share their work with us via Arabic theological texts in translation, and foster a deeper appreciation of theological reasoning within Muslim, Jewish, Christian traditions – and beyond.
Attendees are invited to participate in witnessing the reading of Arabic theological texts wherein the authorial voices of figures from diverse religious traditions are foregrounded, and Arabic is taken seriously by scholars as a significant vehicle of human expression, past and present.
Theology in Arabic Themes:
Speculative theology
Providence and theodicy
Contemplation, spiritual practice & autobiography
Virtue ethics and wisdom traditions.
Poetics of devotion, prayer, liturgy
Ascesis/Mysticism
Sainthood/Sufism
Covenantal Theology
Philosophy, Science, and Natural Philosophy
Epistemology
Psychology; the Soul
Past Seminars
Title: Classical Islamic Conceptions of Human Flourishing: Al-Māwardī (d. 1058) on Human Virtues, Divine Transcendence, and Just Governance
Presenter: Mohamed Lamallam, Phd Candidate in Theology and Religious Studies, Georgetown University
Title: A Classical Islamic Appreciation of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem, Georgetown University
Title: Yaḥyā ibn Jarīr on Jesus’ Perfecting of the Law of Moses
Presenter: Dr. Diego Cucarella, Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Title: An Ashʿarite’s Denial of Incarnation and a Coptic Christian’s Response: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and al-Ṣafī ibn al-ʿAssāl on Indwelling and Uniting
Presenter: Dr. Salam Rassi, University of Edinburgh
Title: Al-Jahiz on Divine Adoption in Jewish and Christian Scripture
Presenter: Dr. Nathan Gibson, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Title: A Ninth-Century Muslim Theologian on Maintaining God-Consciousness
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem, Georgetown University
Title: On The Triune Nature of God
Presenter: Dr. Ryann Craig, Georgetown University
Title: Free Will in the Theology of Maimonides (Rabbi Mūsā b. Maymūn)
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem, Georgetown University
Title: Free Will in the Theology of Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem, Georgetown University
Title: Bishop Thawdūrus (Theodore) Abū Qurra on Free Will
Presenter: Dr. Rodrigo Adem, Georgetown University