Biographical Information

David Burrell CSC is currently Theodore Hesburgh Professor in Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and has been working since 1982 in comparative issues philosophical of theology in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as evidenced in Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas (Notre Dame, 1986) and Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions (Notre Dame 1993), Friendship and Ways to Truth (Notre Dame 2000) and two translations of al-Ghazali: Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1993) and Al-Ghazali on Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence (Louisville, Fons Vitae 2001). With Elena Malits he co-authored Original Peace (New York: Paulist, 1998). He served as Luce Professor of Abrahamic Faiths at Hartford Seminary and University of Hartford in the fall of 1998, and has been asked to direct the University’s Jerusalem program, housed at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute each spring until 2004.

William C. Chittick is a professor in the Department of Comparative Religious Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Among his many publications are The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (1983), The Psalms of Islam (1988), The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Cosmology (1998), Sufism: A Short Introduction (2000), and The Heart of Islamic Philosophy: The Quest for Self-Knowledge in the Teachings of Afdal al-Din Kashani (2001).

Vincent J. Cornell is the Professor of History and Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.  He has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Georgia and Duke University.  He has published two major books: The Way of Abu Madyan (Cambridge; The Islamic Texts Society, 1996) and Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1998). His pre-modern interests cover the entire spectrum of Islamic thought from Sufism, to philosophy, to Islamic law. He has lived and worked in Morocco for nearly six years, and has spend considerable time both teaching and doing research in Egypt, Tunisia, Malaysian and Indonesia. He is presently working on two books: a biography of the North African Sufi Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili, and a work on Hermetic doctrines in al-Andalus. He has just finished an overview of Islamic theology and philosophy that will appear in the Islamic Civilization volume of the “World Eras” series published by Garland Publishing, United Kingdom.

Ewert H. Cousins, Professor Emeritus at Fordham University, the chief editorial consultant for the 100 volume Paulist Press series, The Classics of Western Spirituality and is also General Editor of the 25-volume series, World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest.  He is the author of Christ of the 21st Century, and Bonaventure and the Coincidence of Opposites.  He is also a Member of the Advisory Board, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, Co-Convenor, Commission on World Spirituality, and was Consultant to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, 1973-1984.

James S. Cutsinger, PhD from Harvard University, is a Professor of Theology and Religious Thought at the University of South Carolina and Secretary for the Foundation of Traditional Studies. His publications include The Form of Transformed Vision: Coleridge and the Knowledge of God (1987), Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon (1997), and a forthcoming collection of Christian spiritual writings, Not of This World: A Treasury of Christian Mysticism.

Ann Feldhaus

Alan Godlas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia, where he also is the Undergraduate Coordinator. In addition, he is the Co-Director of the UGA-Morocco Maymester program. At UGA he teaches Islamic Studies and Arabic courses as well as a survey course on the world's religions. A native-born Californian, Dr. Godlas received his M.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1991) in Near Eastern Studies (specializing in Islamic Studies) from the University of California at Berkeley, under the supervision of Prof. Hamid Algar. Dr. Godlas has conducted extensive research in manuscript libraries in Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey. His professional experience includes being on the editorial board of the journal, Sufi Illuminations, and being a member of the steering committee of the Study of Mysticism and Study of Islam sections of the American Academy of Religion. Dr. Godlas was granted a National Endowment to the Humanities fellowship for the study of mysticism with Professor Huston Smith in 1993. In the Summer of 1997, Dr. Godlas received a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship for study in Uzbekistan.  Dr. Godlas is most well-known for his Islamic Studies and Sufism websites which are generally regarded as the foremost comprehensive academic websites for the study of Islam and Sufism on the entire worldwide web. In April 2002 his Islamic Studies website was one of five nominees for a Webby award in the category of spirituality. (The Webbys are the equivalent of the Oscars for websites.) Among his competitors was the website of the Vatican!

William A. Graham has been a member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 1973 and was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Divinity in 2002.  He is a past director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and past chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Committee on the Study of Religion, the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies, and the Core Curriculum Subcommittee on Foreign Cultures at Harvard.  He is also former chair of the Council on Graduate Studies in Religion (U.S. and Canada).  His scholarly work has focused on early Islamic religious history and textual traditions and problems in the history of world religion.  In October 2000 he received the quinquennial Award for Excellence in Research in Islamic History and Culture from the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), the research institute of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.  He has held John Simon Guggenheim and Alexander von Humboldt research fellowships and is the author of Beyond the Written Word:  Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (1987, 1993); Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam (1977 -- American Council of Learned Societies History of Religions Prize, 1978); co-author of The Heritage of World Civilizations (5th rev. ed., 2000) and Three Faiths, One God (forthcoming, 2002); and co-editor of Islamfiche:  Readings from Islamic Primary Sources (1982-87).  He is also the author of numerous articles and reviews.  He received his A.B summa cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard.

Nicholas L. Heer, Professor Emeritus at the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1955. Nicholas Heer received his B.A. from Yale University in 1949 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1955. From 1955 to 1957 he worked as a translation analyst for the Arabian American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia. In 1958 he returned to the United States to become curator of the Middle East collections of the Hoover Institutions at Stanford University. The following year he was appointed assistant professor of Arabic in the Department of Asian Languages at Stanford. During the academic year 1962-63 he was a visiting lecturer at Yale University, and from 1963 to 1965 he was an assistant professor of Arabic at Harvard University. In 1965 he was appointed associate professor of Arabic at the University of Washington and was subsequently promoted to full professor in 1976. In 1982 he was named chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and served in that capacity until 1987. He retired from the University of Washington in 1990 at the age of 62.

His publications include and Arabic edition of ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jami’s al-Durrah al-Fakhirah (Wisdom of Persia Series XIX, Tehran, 1980) and an English translation of the same work published under the same title The Precious Pearl (Albany: SUNY Press, 1979).  Other relevant publications are: ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jami The Precious Pearl. Al-Jami’s al-Durrah al-Fakhirah together with his Glosses and the Commentary of ‘Abd al-Ghafur al-Lari translated with an introduction, notes, and glossary by Nicholas Heer. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1979.)  ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Jami al-Durrah al-Fakhirah. Edited with the glosses of al-Jami and the commentaries of ‘Abd al-Ghafur al-Lari and ‘Imad al-Dawlah by N. Heer and A. Musawi Bihbahani. Wisdom of Persia Series XIV, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Tehran Branch. Tehran, 1358/1980.

Ali Juma’a, Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence, University of Al Azhar, Cairo, the Director of the Azhar Mosque and Imam at the Sultan Hasan Mosque; advisor to the Minister of Islamic Endowments, Cairo.

Bruce Lawrence earned his PhD. from Yale University in the study of History of Religions: Islam and Hinduism and has researched topics such as Institutional Islam and is an expert of Indo-Persian Sufism in all periods as well as the comparative study of religious movements. He currently serves as a Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University and has published numerous books such as Shahrastani on the Indian Religions, and The Rose and the Rock: Mystical and Rational Elements in the Intellectual History of South Asian Islam. He is also known for his recent Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence.

Martin Lings, formerly Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Library, is the author of three works on Islamic mysticism. The Book of Certainty, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawi and What is Sufism?, the last two of which have been published in many languages. He is the author of The Secret of Shakespeare, Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions, Symbol and Archetype and the splendidly illustrated The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination, a revised edition of which is in preparation. His Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources has been internationally acclaimed as a masterpiece as has his Symbol and Archetype. His two latest publications are his Collected Poems and The Eleventh Hour: The spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition and Prophecy.

W. Eugene March Arnold Black Rhodes Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Bible Studies, Austin College, B.A.; Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, B.D.; Union Theological Seminary, New York, Ph.D. Eugene March began teaching Old Testament at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1964. He joined the Louisville Seminary faculty in 1982. During his tenure at the Seminary, he has served as Director of Continuing Education, Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, Assistant to the President, and Dean of the Seminary. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Dr. March teaches Introduction to Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew and specializes in the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. Further interests include biblical theology, the Wisdom tradition, and apocalyptic literature found in the Old and New Testaments. “The Old Testament is a rich document that has many types of material within it. It provides room for exploration and many opportunities to make a connection with life. I hope that my students see in me an example of one who is committed to biblical study and yet very much in touch with the contemporary world.”  Very active in interfaith groups, particularly in Jewish-Christian dialogues, Dr. March helped to shepherd through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly a statement that better defines the relationship between Christians and Jews. It was completed in 1987 and received international recognition. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, and the American Schools of Oriental Research. Dr. March is widely-known for his adult Bible lessons in The Presbyterian Outlook. He is the author of Israel and the Politics of Land (1994), the commentary on Haggai in the New Interpreter’s Bible (1996), and the revision of A.B. Rhodes’ The Mighty Acts of God (2000), and co-author of The Power of Ideas (2000), an historical account of the establishment of the Louisville Grawemeyer Awards.

Jonathan Montaldo is the General Editor of the Fons Vitae Thomas Merton Series.  He has edited “Entering the Silence”, with Patrick Hart, and “Dialogues with Silence: Thomas Merton’s Prayers and Drawings.”  He was Director of The Thomas Merton Center, the official archive of Merton’s legacy at Bellarmine University, from 1998-2001.    He is President of the International Thomas Merton Society 2001-2003. He is preparing a text to accompany photographs by Harry Hinkle to be published by the University of Kentucky Press: “Landscape of Communion: Thomas Merton’s Gethsemani”

James W. Morris PhD Harvard, BA University of Chicago is currently Professor and Sharjah Chair of Islamic Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies, in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.  He has previously taught at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in Paris and London, and in departments of Religious Studies at Princeton, Temple and Oberlin; he lectures and gives seminars and workshops extensively throughout Europe, North America and the Islamic world. His most recent books include Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilisation (2001), The Master and the Disciple: An Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue (2001), Ibn 'Arabi: The Meccan Revelations (2002, as co-author).

Sachiko Murata is a Professor of Religious Studies at the State University of New York at Stoney Brook. She is the author of The Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light and The Tao of Islam.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University. He has also taught at Temple University and Tehran University and was the first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy. He is the author of over 20 books including Ideals and Realities of Islam, Sufi Essays and Knowledge and the Sacred (The Gifford Lectures for 1981) as well as Muhammad—Man of Allah and Traditional Wisdom in the Modern World. He studied physics and the history of science and philosophy at M.I.T. and received his doctorate from Harvard University.

Jacob Needleman is Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, and former Director of the Center for the study of New Religions at The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.  He was educated in philosophy at Harvard, Yale and the University of Freiburg, Germany.  He has also served as Research Associate at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, as a Research Fellow at Union Theological Seminary, as Adjunct Professor of Medical Ethics and the University of California Medical School and as guest Professor of Religious Studies at the Sorbonne, Paris(1992).  He is the author of The New Religions, a pioneering study of the new American spirituality, A Little Book on Love, Money and the Meaning of Life, A Sense of the Cosmos: The Encounter of Modern Science and Ancient Truth, Lost Christianity, The Heart of Philosophy, The Way of the Physician, Time and the Soul,  and Sorcerers, a novel. He was also general editor of the Element Books series, The Spirit of Philosophy. In addition to his teaching and writing, he serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy and business, and is increasingly well known as an organizer and moderator of conferences in these fields.  He has also been featured on Bill Moyers' acclaimed PBS series, "A World of Ideas." His most recent book, The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders , was published in 2002.

Omid Safi is an assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. His research specialty is that of the Persian Sufi tradition. He is a member of the Steering Committee for the Study of Islam section at the American Academy of Religion. His translation of Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani’s Tamhidat is to be published by Paulist Press’ Classics of Western Spirituality Series. In additions, he has dozens of essays about various aspects of Islamic thought, Sufism and Muslim history in academic journals and encyclopedias.

Barbara Von Schlegell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in Near Eastern Studies. Her translated works include an Arabic translation of Principles of Sufism: The Risalah of ‘Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri and the Malay translation of Principles of Sufism. Her published works also include Muslim Women Throughout the World: An Annotated Bibliography and Sufi Women of Damascus. Barbara was also the recipient of the Inaugural Kahn Teaching Award for Excellence by an Assistant Professor in May of 2000.

Reza Shah-Kazemi is a Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. His publications include Paths to Transcendence: Spiritual Realization according to Shankhara, Ibn Arabi, and Meister Eckhart (forthcoming).  He is currently working on a new English translation of the Imam Ali’s Nahj Al-Balagha.

Huston Smith of the University of California at Berkeley is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University. His many books include Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World’s Religions (1976), Beyond the Post-Modern Mind (1989), and Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in and Age of Disbelief (2001), as well as the classic study The World’s Religions.  He has been the focus of a five-part PBS television series with Bill Moyers.  His discovery of Tibetan multiphonic chanting was lauded as “an important landmark in the study of music”, and his film documentaries of Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won international awards.

H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan was educated at Harrow School, received his BA summa cum laude from Princeton University, and his Ph.d from Trinity College, Cambridge University. He served both as Cultural and Education Secretary and as Advisor for Tribal Affairs to the late H.M. King Hussein of Jordan. He is the author of a number of books and articles including the critically acclaimed The Tribes of Jordan at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century (1999).

Robert A. F. Thurman PHD, named as one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People of 1997, has been a college professor and writer for 30 years, and holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in America (Jey Tsong Khapa Chair, Columbia University). He is the co-founder and president of the non-profit organization, Tibet House New York and was the first Western Tibetan monk, a student for over 35 years and a friend of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is the author of numerous books, including Inner Revolution and Essential Tibetan Buddhism and is acknowledged as a key figure in American Buddhism.

Bonnie Thurston earned her Ph.D. in English and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and completed her Post-doctorate work in New Testament Studies at Harvard Divinity School. She recently resigned as Professor of New Testament at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary where she earned the honor of being named the William F. Orr Professor of New Testament in 1999. Recent works include To Everything a Season: A Spirituality of Time, Fruit of the Spirit, Growth of the Heart and Preaching Mark. She also recently has published The Heart’s Land, a book of poems in 2001.

Frank Vogel is the Director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program and the Custodian of the Holy Mosques Adjunct Professor of Islamic Legal Studies at Harvard. His published works include Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia and an essay entitled The Trial of Terrorists under Classical Islamic Law. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Islamic Law and Middle Eastern Studies.

Gisela Webb is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey), teaching courses in World Religions, Islamic Studies (Medieval Islamic Thought and Contemporary American Islam). She is editor of Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-Activists in North American (Syracuse University 2000, Dar al-Fikr, Damascus 2002) and author of several publications on contemporary Islamic spirituality in America.

John Alden Williams is a retired Professor of Humanities and Religion at the College of William and Mary. He taught Islamic Studies at the Institute of Islamic Studies (McGill University, Montreal), the American University in Cairo and at William and Mary. He has written eight books on Islamic religion and civilization as well as many articles. 

Timothy J Winter is University Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, England, and Director of Studies in Theology at Wolfson College. His research work focuses on Muslim-Christian relations, Islamic ethics and the study of the Orthodox Muslim response to extremism. He is particularly known for his translations and namely his Al-Ghazali series including Al-Ghazali’s On Death and What Comes After and Al-Ghazali’s On Disciplining the Soul. (Islamic Text Society, Cambridge)

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