BRUCE B.
LAWRENCE Both an Islamicist and a comparativist, Bruce B.
Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor
of Religion, and also Chair of the Department of Religion. He
has been on the faculty at Duke University since 1971. A graduate
of Princeton University, with a Master of Divinity from Episcopal
Divinity School (Cambridge), he earned his doctorate at Yale University
in History of Religions. There he was trained to engage the large
swath of Asia known as West and South Asia, with particular reference
to the cultures and languages, the history and religious practices
marked as Muslim. But he also concerns himself with the non-Muslim
religious traditions of Asia, especially Hinduism and Buddhism,
Sikhism and Jainism, at the same time that he pursues the turbulent
reconnections of Europe to Asia that were forged in colonial,
then post-colonial encounters. His books include Shahrastani on
the Indian Religions (1976), followed by Notes from a Distant
Flute (1978), The Rose and the Rock (1979) and Ibn Khaldun and
Islamic Ideology (1984). Since the mid-80s, he has been especially
concerned with the interplay between religion and ideology. The
test case of fundamentalism became the topic of his award-winning
monograph, Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against
the Modern Age (1989/1995). A parallel but narrower enquiry informed
his latest monograph, Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond Violence
(1998/2000). Go, God, Go: Resilient Religion in the Global Century
(forthcoming in Fall 2001 from W.W. Norton) looks at the complex
interaction of ideology, theology and spiritual practices in multiple
contexts throughout the 20th century. Its audience will be general,
as was the audience of his trade book, The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Religions Online (Macmillan, 2000).
Recommended
Readings:
