A Talk by Dr.Abdolkarim Soroush: "Shi'ism in Need of Reform"

Iranian Student Alliance in America-ISAA
proudly presents:

Abdolkarim Soroush is an Iranian thinker, reformer and Rumi scholar. He is a well-known figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at George Washington University in Washington D.C. He was also affiliated with other prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, the Leiden based International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.
Soroush is primarily interested in the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, the philosophical system of Molana Jalaleddin Balkhi (Rumi) and comparative philosophy. He is a world expert on Rumi and Persian Sufi poetry.
The philosophy of Abdolkarim Soroush can be summarized as follows:

• Distinction between "religion" and our "understanding of religion".
• Distinction between "essential" and "accidental" aspects of religion.
• Distinction between "minimalist" and "maximalist" interpretation of Islam.
• Distinction between values and morals that are considered internal in respect to Islam and those that are external.
• Distinction between Religious "belief" and Religious "faith".
• Distinction between religion as an ideology/identity and religion of truth.

Some of Soroush's honors include:

• 2004 Erasmus Prize
• 2005 Time 100 most influential people
• 2008 Prospect magazine's 7 of 100 most influential intellectuals in the world
• 2009 Foreign Policy magazine's 45 of 100 world's elite intellectuals
• 2010 Foreign Policy magazine's 40 of 100 top global thinkers

Co-Sponsors:

• Center of Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley
• The Graduate Theological Union

Time: Thursday, January 20, 2010 at 6:30pm

Location: Tilden Room, MLK Student Union, UC Berkeley Campus, Berkeley, CA 94720

Dr. Soroush Page on Wikipedia | Foreign Policy's 2010 Top 100 Golbal Thinkers | Campus Map