Jacob Perlow Lecture Series

Spring 2008

"The Hedgehog's Dilemma: On the necessity and the impossibility of understanding religion"

Steven M. Wasserstrom, the Moe and Izetta Tonkon Professor of Judaic Studies and the Humanities at Reed College
Wednesday April 2, 2008 at 7 pm
Emerson Auditorium

Author of Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam, which received the Award for Excellence in Historical Studies from the American Academy of Religion, Professor Wasserstrom is also author of Religion after Religion: Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade, and Henry Corbin at Eranos, a crucial text in the study of theory and method in contemporary scholarship in religion.

Professor Wassterstom will be on campus for several days, visiting several classes and joining in a panel discussion with faculty from across the disciplines - well beyond those just in the Humanities to include Education Studies, Management and Business and more.  In his lecture - open to the public - he will speak from his own experience about why it is important to understand religion today, and what stands in our way in our attempts to do so.

 

---

About the Jacob Perlow Lecture Series in Judaic Studies

A generous grant from the estate of Jacob Perlow -- an immigrant to the United States in the 1920's, a successful business man deeply interested in religion and philosophy, and a man who was committed to furthering Jewish education -- supports the annual lectures and presentations to the College and Capital District community on issues broadly related to Jews and Judaism. Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Special Programs, two Perlow presentations are offered each year, one in the late Spring and another in July.