ICJS hosts scholars, authors, clergy, activists, and educators to bring you information and knowledge on the intersection of religion in the arenas of history, theology, politics, education, or interpersonal relationships. Click below to use the Resource Finder to see all past, current and upcoming events.
Today, antisemitism is still a social and political problem. However, many disagree as to what it actually is. This course explores the various efforts in history to define antisemitism and the political factors that inform them. We examine a few contemporary definitions of antisemitism and evaluate the political worldviews of each, so that participants can consider the role these definitions play in efforts to counter antisemitism as well as how they inform broader socio-political concerns.
Howard Thurman was arguably the most important 20th century African American religious leader before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and is universally acclaimed as the moral anchor to the modern Civil Rights Movement. This minicourse introduces participants to Thurman in the contexts of African American religious and cultural activism. It explores his relationships with pivotal 20th century actors including Mahatma Gandhi, Reinhold Neibhur, Abraham Heschel, Olive Schreiner, Rufus Jones, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mary McCloud Bethune, demonstrating Thurman as connector and convener, who engineered spiritual reform and an inward journey towards common ground and interfaith work in America.
Susan Taubes was an important 20th century figure in literature and Jewish thought whose work is being given a fresh appraisal, including a recent New Yorker essay. Elliot Wolfson, a philosopher and author of The Philosophical Pathos of Susan Taubes, will join ICJS Jewish Scholar Benjamin Sax in a discussion of Taubes’ literature, her views on Judaism and Christianity, her view of Paul and the theological questions of the universal and the particular, and how Kabbalah may have informed those views.
Salafism, a movement in modern Sunni Islam, is often pejoratively labeled as part of “Islamic fundamentalism” or “Radical Islam.” In his book, Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America, ICJS Protestant Scholar Matthew D. Taylor explores the experiences of the Salafi community in America after 9/11 through a comparison with American Evangelicals. He finds striking similarities in how they approach their respective scriptures, the Qur’an/Hadith for Salafis and the Bible for Evangelicals. In conversation with ICJS Muslim Scholar Zeyneb Sayilgan, Matt will recount his own history growing up Evangelical and working as a campus minister before finding a kind of kindred spirit in the Salafi Muslims he meets, ultimately making Islam the focus of his doctoral studies. He will share his insights on this growing and morphing American Salafi movement.