Professor Knepper’s Spring 2105 Philosophy of Religion course looked at discourses of ineffability in Jewish mysticism and Muslim mysticism (as well as a little Zen Buddhism). In their final papers students were asked to describe and compare several of these discourses, then both to explain their commonalities and differences and to evaluate the general claim …
Tim Knepper and Leah Kalmanson, Directors of The Comparison Project, Drake University professors of philosophy and religion. April 30, 7 p.m., Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center In the final event of its 2013-2015 series on “religion beyond words,” The Comparison Project’s directors, Tim Knepper and Leah Kalmanson, will compare over the programming of the last two …
Tamara Albertini, Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Undergraduate Certificate of Islamic Studies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa April 16, 7 p.m., Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center The female Muslim mystic Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya (d. 801) is widely considered one of the most influential mystics of Sufism, as she was primarily responsible for redirecting the spirit of early …
Steven Katz, Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Chair of Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Boston University Feb. 26, 7 p.m., Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center The Jewish mystical tradition, like all mystical traditions, has had to deal with the issue of language and the communication of mystical experience. In responding to this basic issue, Jewish mystics did …
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Craig Owens, Associate Professor of English, Drake University February 12, 7:00 p.m., Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center The narrators of Samuel Beckett’s novels and the characters in his plays fill their worlds with words. In his final trilogy of novels, Nowhow On, these utterances become intensely self-reflective, so much so that they are about uttering itself, …
Drake University’s Comparison Project hosts two exhibitions on art and ineffability during the month of November with opening events on Friday, November 7. The opening events feature poetic and musical performances of ineffability from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Weeks Gallery, a gallery talk on contemporary abstract painting as a form of wordless communication at …
Christopher Janke, Independent Poet and Artist Thursday, November 6, 6:00 p.m. Cowles Library Reading Room Using a Net to Catch the Air: Poetry, Ineffability, and Small Stones in a Shoe is a free-form lecture—a meditation—on the way certain poets create aesthetic experiences by simultaneously constructing and undermining their own linguistic creations. Christopher Janke explores the connection …
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Lecture by Anantanand Rambachan, Professor of Religion, St. Olaf College Thursday, October 9, 7:00 p.m., Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center Advaita is a non-dual Vedānta tradition within Hinduism, based on an exegesis of the Upaniṣads, the final sections of the Vedas. Its principal systematizer and exponent is Śaṅkara (ca. 8th CE). Advaita regards the words of …
Thursday, September 18th, 7:00 p.m., Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center Lecture by Gereon Kopf, Associate Professor of Religion, Luther College Philosophy of religion as developed in the monotheistic traditions of Christianity and Islam explores the question as to if/how it is possible to talk about and predicate God. One of the answers to this question is negative …
