Religion in Culture Lecture

At 7 p.m. on Monday, April 14, 2008, Prof. Herb Berg, of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, presented a lecture, entitled, "The Historical Muhammad and the Historical Jesus: A Comparison of Scholarly Reinventions and Reinterpretations" in Gorgas Library. The lecture will be published in its expanded version in Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses, Canada's bilingual periodical in the study of religion.

Prof. Steven Ramey (left), a specialist in modern Indian identity--both in India and the U.S.--plans and often hosts the Department's public events; here, he turns the podium over to Prof. Berg after introducing him. (We're pleased that, in the Fall 2008 semester, Prof. Ramey will offer the Department's first 200-level course on the history of Islam.)

Although he also publishes on the the history of the Nation of Islam (the topic of his lunchtime discussion), Prof. Berg's primary expertise is in Islamic origins--a field dedicated to the social history of Islam, including the possible compositional history of its scripture, the Quran. His scholarship, as exemplified in The Development of Exegesis in Early Islam and Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins, as well as his chapter in Ibn Warraq's edited collection, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, pays close attention to how social theory can be used to help understand the earliest historical period of what has come to be a tremendously influential worldwide movement.

Although scholars of Christian origins and scholars of Islamic origins are each engaged in a similar task and use similar methods--both trying to draw upon empirical evidence, whether textual or archeological, to reconstruct the earliest phases in these respective traditions--Berg's lecture focused on the lack of exchange between these two groups, ending with practical suggestions for how they can each benefit from becoming more familiar with their peer's work.

A number of students attended this evening lecture, including REL major Sean Beadore (second from the right, middle row) and REL 480 student, Amelia Hastings (to his right).

The difference between the Jesus or the Muhammad "of faith" and that "of history"--as scholars have traditionally distinguished between the way participants in each of these communities see these figures as opposed to how historians do--was a crucial distinction in Prof. Berg's lecture. Limited to empirical evidence, the quest for the social world of the historical founders of a tradition can be rather different from the way such founders are understood by some of their followers.

Prof. Maha Marouan (left) and REL student, Angel Narvaez-Lugo--both of whom attended dinenr with Prof. Berg, along with Jaci Gresham and Prof. McCutcheon--also attended the lecture. Later in the week they were as co-hosts for the Department's Honors Day reception.

Learn about Prof. Berg's lunchtime discussion.

Thanks to Prof. Steven Ramey, Donna Martin, and Betty Dickey for planning this public event. Thanks again to Jaci "How Do You Adjust the Shutter Speed?" Gresham--our budding photojournalist.