at First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Cost: $10 suggested donation at the door; no one turned away for lack of funds
Co-sponsored by:
- First Congregational Church of Berkeley
- The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California
- Cody's Books
"Converging/Diverging Faiths:
Islam and Christianity from the Center"
Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
foremost Islamic scholar in the United States today,
and Huston Smith, philosopher/theologian and author of the classic,
The World's Religions, will reflect upon Islam and Christianity,
touching upon their similarities and differerences and pointing towards
their common source as manifestations of the divine in the world.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in Tehran, Iran in 1933. His early education was received in Iran. He later studied physics and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1958 with a specialization in Islamic cosmology and science. From 1958-1979 he was professor of the history of science and philosophy at Tehran University. Nasr founded, and was the first president of The Iranian Academy of Philosophy. In 1979 he migrated to the United States and taught at several American universities before joining the faculty of George Washington University in 1984 where he is currently the University Professor of Islamic Studies.Nasr has written a number of books on the relation between religion and science in general and Islam and science in particular. Some of his recent works are: Islam: Religion, History and Civilization; Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man; and The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity.
Huston Smith
Huston Smith is best known for his book The World's Religions (published in 1958 as The Religions of Man, translated into 12 languages, and still one of the most widely used college textbooks on comparative religion), Smith believes the role of what he calls the world's "wisdom traditions" is a simple one: to help us behave decently toward one another.Smith has taught at a number of universities, including MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is Why Religion Matters: the Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief.