Word of God

What does it mean for something to be ‘the word of God?’ What are the origins, forms, and functions of this concept? This seminar series investigates what it means within the traditions of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, with a variety of scholars and thinkers.  The Word of God seminar series, begun in the Spring semester of 2015 and organized by Sudipta Kaviraj, is a series of public conversations that attempts to answer these questions.

All talks will be from 4:10-6:00pm.  This series is free and open to all.  No registration is required, but space is limited.

The scheduled seminars are:

Wednesday, February 4
Knox Hall, Room 509
Gil Anidjar, Columbia University
“The Word of God”
An audio recording of this seminar is available here.

Friday, February 13
80 Claremont, Room 101
Wael Hallaq, Columbia University
“God’s Word: Between the Intentional and the Political”
An audio recording of this seminar is available here.

Friday, February 27, 10:00am – 12:00pm
Knox Hall, Room 509
Arindam Chakrabarti, University of Hawai’i
“Moral Epistemic Authority With or Without God: The Meaning of an Imperative Sentence (Vidhi-vAkya), Nyaya versus Miimamsa”
with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as Chair
An audio recording of this seminar is available here.

Friday, March 6
Knox Hall, Room 509
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
“The Word of God in Translation”
An audio recording of this seminar is available here.

Wednesday, March 25
Knox Hall, Room 509
Lawrence McCrea, Cornell University
“Does God have free will?: Hermeneutics and Theology in Medieval South India”

Friday, March 27
80 Claremont Ave, Room 101
Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
“Can a Monotheist God be Multilingual?”

Wednesday, April 8
Knox Hall, Room 509
Hossein Kamaly, Barnard College
“Can the Word of God be Ambiguous?”

Wednesday, April 15
Knox Hall, Room 509
Shaul Magid, Indiana University
“The Word of God Is No Word at All”

Friday, April 17
Charles Hallisey, Harvard University
“Learning the Word of God from Reading the Word of the Buddha”Wednesday,

Friday, April 24
(room to be announced)
Jerusha Lamptey, Union Theological Seminary
“Women and the Word(s): Comparative Feminist Approaches to the Word of God.”

Wednesday, April 29
Knox Hall, Room 509
Parimal Patil, Harvard University