Past Events

Please join the Center for Islamic Studies and the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies for a plenary on the subject of theism and atheism in the modern age. We will hear from author Scott Shay, whose recent book, In Good Faith: Questioning Religion and Atheism, tackles the difficult question of theology in our time. Additional panelists include Filipe Maia, Assistant Professor of United Methodist Studies, Leadership, and Theology, Deena Aranoff, Faculty Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, and Ali Ataie, Professor at Zaytuna College. Scott A. Shay has had a successful business career spanning Wall Street, [...]

The GTU Council of Presidents invites the community to gather for prayer, remembrance, and solidarity with the Jewish community in the aftermath of the horrific attack at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this past Saturday. The brief interfaith prayer service will be held this afternoon, Monday, October 29, 2018, at 4:30 p.m. on the steps of the chapel at Pacific School of Religion (1978 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley). The anti-semitic atrocity in Pittsburgh follows a week of hatred expressed in the killing of two African American elders in Kentucky, mail-bomb threats on the life of political leaders, and incendiary rhetoric [...]

The cultures of Islam and Judaism developed over centuries, giving expression to an enormous span of regional and cultural diversity. Today’s program will explore the common and divergent elements in their aesthetic expression and how continuity, linearity, and non-linearity come into play in the material culture of each tradition. We will explore forms such as geometry, calligraphy, illumination, and monumental inscriptions as well as the aesthetics of worship and liturgy. Speakers include Carol Bier and Francesco Spagnolo Carol Bier, historian of Islamic Art, studies patterns as intersections of art and mathematics. As Research Scholar at the Center for Islamic Studies at [...]

Please join us for a GTU wide, interfaith prayer vigil in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers, and against all forms of hatred. Led by representatives from our GTU schools and centers, we will gather this Tuesday, March 19, at 4:00 p.m. in front of the chapel at Pacific School of Religion (1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley).

The CJS and CIS welcome Professor Vicki Spencer from the University of Otago in New Zealand to offer a reflection on the recent violence in Christchurch, NZ. In the wake of the tragic massacre of 50 Muslims and many more being injured at the hand of a white supremacist in Christchurch on 15 March 2019, the topic of tolerance takes on additional poignance. This seminar goes back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to examine the views of four leading Western advocates of toleration: John Locke, Pierre Bayle, Montesquieu, and Voltaire, with particular reference to their attitudes toward Islam and Judaism. The [...]

A Symposium at the Graduate Theological Union Please join these scholars of Jewish and Islamic texts in conversation about translation, interpretation, study, and practice. 1:30pm: Deena Aranoff (GTU) and Mahan Mirza (University of Notre Dame) 3:00pm: Chana Kronfeld (UC Berkeley) and Nargis Virani (Emory University) 4:30pm: Robert Alter (UC Berkeley) and Todd Lawson (University of Toronto) 6pm: Reception