Fall 2012

At a September 17 event, GTU President James Donahue and CIS Director Munir Jiwa spoke against the violence perpetuated in Libya and Egypt, actions which spawned protests around the world, following the circulation of a 14-minute movie trailer maligning the Prophet Muhammad. They addressed a full-house alongside of Hatem Bazian, UC Berkeley and Zaytuna College; Zaid Shakir, Zaytuna College; and Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Zaytuna College. Hanson is also a doctoral student at the GTU. The panel was moderated by journalist Sandy Tolan.

The event, “Between Militarism and Extremism: The...

Rev. Kristin Johnston Largen (Ph.D. ’02), Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (PA), has been selected at the GTU’s Alumna of the Year for 2012 and will be honored during the Alumni Reception at AAR/SBL (see back cover for details). Largen was selected in recognition of her pioneering work in interreligious dialogue and comparative theology. In announcing the selection, Dean Arthur Holder said, “As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the GTU, it is appropriate to honor a graduate whose scholarship is firmly rooted in her own Lutheran...

Josefina J. Card, Ph.D., who prefers to go by J.J., first learned of the GTU from her friend, Judy Larsen who serves on the Board of Trustees as the representative for the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Larsen approached Card to see if she would accept a nomination to the GTU Board of Trustees. Moved by the interfaith and multireligious mission of the GTU, Card agreed. In her first year as a Trustee, she has seen in action her belief that there are many roads to God, and that the GTU clearly helps articulate those roads.

In her professional life, Card is Founder and...

Though much of our religious traditions are recorded and communicated through text or action, art has been a long-standing avenue for expression and instruction of things concerning the soul.

The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library is hosting a special exhibit in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the GTU. Imaging Religion, which opens October 1 and runs through January 31, 2013, will feature visual and textual expressions characterizing beliefs from various religious traditions. Included in the display are Orthodox icons; Catholic paintings, prints, and vestments; Protestant prints...

With few counterparts, the Center for Islamic Studies (CIS) offers graduate students and scholars, Muslim and those of other faith traditions, the opportunity to pursue the academic study of Islam, within the multireligious context of the GTU, where pluralism, dialogue and interreligious understanding are the basis of scholarship and service. It also provides a community for Muslim students throughout the consortium regardless of academic interests.

The Center’s mission is to build an academic platform to help scholars and students of many faiths understand Islam as a living world...