SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Teaching the Abrahamic Religions: A Subversive Enterprise?

The recent reinvention of the concept of the Abrahamic religions stems from the legitimate desire, on the side of Western European Christians, to include the new Muslim populations in European societies. The concept was born, to some extent, in interfaith relations and seems to have broadened the notion of  the “Judaeo-Christian tradition” that grew in importance after the Second World War. Can such a concept be of real epistemic value for the scholarly study of religions? The lecture will seek to identify the conditions in which such a transformation is possible, and will also emphasize its dangers and pitfalls.