"A Matter of Orthodoxy: Islamic Theories of Belief Between Religious Studies and Philosophy," Monday, February 3rd at 5pm
“A Matter of Orthodoxy: Islamic Theories of Belief Between Religious Studies and Philosophy”
A Public Lecture by Dr. Caitlyn Olson (Bucknell University)
Monday, February 3rd
5:00pm | ZSR Library Auditorium
On Monday, February 3rd, visiting scholar Dr. Caitlyn Olson will deliver the public lecture, “A Matter of Orthodoxy: Islamic Theories of Belief Between Religious Studies and Philosophy” at 5:00pm in the ZSR Library Auditorium (404).
In recent decades, it has become something of a postcolonial truism in Religious Studies that religious belief is a peculiarly Christian concern – that to look for notions of belief in non-Christian cultures is to impose a foreign set of expectations on them. This talk argues that when it comes to historical Islamic thought, religious belief was, in fact, a topic of great import. Islamic theological texts from a vast swathe of centuries, geographies, and schools of thought bear out this claim, as they feature robust discussions of religious belief. Not only that, but these discussions can fruitfully be read in conversation with recent arguments coming out of Philosophy that have to do with the relation between belief and knowledge.
Caitlyn Olson is the Josephine Hildreth Detmer and Zareen Taj Mirza Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Bucknell University. Her research focuses on the history of Islamic creed and theology between the 14th-18th centuries in Northwest Africa. A scholar of intellectual history, she works with Arabic sources, taking their ideas seriously while also situating those ideas as the production of an educated, male elite.
This lecture is sponsored by the Wake Forest University Program for Leadership and Character, the Middle East and South Asia Studies Program, the Philosophy Department, and the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Wake Forest University Humanities Institute together: Democracy demands wisdom.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed at these events do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Please send questions about this talk to Dr. Kimberly Wortmann (wortmakt@wfu.edu).