Noor Cultural Centre
    

Book Launch | In the Light of a Blessed Tree

Aug 29th 2011

in-the-light-of-a-blessed-tree

Date: Friday October 7, 2011
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Auditorium, Noor Cultural Centre

Timothy Gianotti is a scholar and interfaith advocate who has served on the faculties of the University of Virginia, the University of Oregon, and Penn State University. Most recently he has served Toronto’s York University and Noor Cultural Centre as the Noor Chair in Islamic Studies and the Noor Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies.  He is the author of Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul (2001).

“In the best sense of the word, this is a deceptive book. Although written in such approachable terms, that simplicity conceals the author’s deep scholarship and his extensive exploration of the faith of Islam, especially in a Western context. In the Light of a Blessed Tree is an inspiring work, and I hope this thoughtful book finds the wide audience it deserves.”
– PHILIP JENKINS
Edward Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities
Pennsylvania State University

“In our times, it has come to take considerable effort to dispose western readers to grasp something of the mystery and beauty of Islam. Yet Timothy Gianotti does so with an apparently effortless prose approaching the poetic, melding experience with history, practitioner with scholar, to bring this rich and multi-faceted tradition alive in our minds and hearts. It is hard to imagine a better way of helping students and seekers to appreciate the wonders of Islam.”
– DAVID BURRELL, CSC
Professor of Ethics and Development
Uganda Martyrs University

In the Light of a Blessed Tree is a multi-faceted work. It is a reliable and informative textbook. It is an academically sound and spiritually illuminating introduction to Islam. And it is a moving and personal faith statement. Above all, it is a spiritual meditation, well-worth reading.”
– MAHMOUD AYOUB
Professor of Islamic Studies and Muslim-Christian Relations
Hartford Seminary

“It is unusual for an author on religion to capture both the ‘body’ and the ‘spirit’ of a faith tradition, to provide a rational, critical articulation of a religion’s ideas and practices along with an accessible entry into the deep and complex corridor of a religion’s inner spaces. Professor Gianotti has managed to accomplish exactly this in his very special book on Islam. This is both a personal meditation based upon his own profound experience as a Muslim, and an analytic and unapologetic articulation of Islam as subject of critical analysis. Through personal anecdotes as practitioner and professor, Gianotti reveals a special sensitivity to the difficulty of understanding Islam in this time of uncertainty. I will use this book in my own teaching.”
– REUVEN FIRESTONE
Professor of Medieval Jewish Studies
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion






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