Dr. Reza Aslan
Religious scholar Dr. Reza Aslan visited campus as the Class of 1952 Endowed Speaker for Religious Understanding. Dr. Aslan is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the author of bestselling Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. He is also the founder of AslanMedia — a social media network for news and entertainment about the Middle East and the world — and co-founder and chief creative officer of BoomGen Studios. Dr. Aslan travels the world speaking to people about religion — particularly about understanding religious conflicts.
“In the United States, a huge debate is happening regarding how responsible Islam is for acts of violence. It has become a very polarized and simplistic conversation, without much nuance. If we are going to understand what is happening in the world and, more importantly, develop a way to deal with the role of religion in violence, we have to allow for nuance — we have to better understand what religion is.”