The Religious Studies Program at Wayne State University is holding a conference Oct. 24 and 25 at the Walter P. Reuther Archives. The conference will deal with a timely topic, "From Religious Toleration to Civic Tolerance: Religion and the State from Antiquity to the Present."

Speakers from six universities will present papers that deal with issues such as the treatment of minority religions in theocratic states, the historical development of models of church-state separation, the history of ideas of religious toleration and civic tolerance, and the relationship of secular states to religious denominations. Wayne State faculty, students and the general public, are invited to attend.

Conference Schedule

Thursday, October 24

2:30-3:45 p.m.:

* Welcome (Lawrence Scaff, Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Arthur Marotti, Director, Religious Studies Program)

* Plenary address by Bruce Lawrence (Duke University): "Religious Pluralism and Contemporary Citizenship: Qur'anic Antecedents, Muslim Dilemmas"

3:45-5:00 p.m.:

* Jacob Lassner (Northwestern University, Tel Aviv University), "The State vs. Religious Community in Early Islam: Implications for Minority Conceptions of Religious Communities"

(continued)

Friday, October 25

9:00-9:15 a.m.: Coffee

9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.:

* Kenneth Walters (Wayne State University): "Tiberium in Tiberim": Popular Justice, Religious Ritual, and Social Drama: From the Gracchi to Elegabalus"

* Ethan Shagan (Northwestern University): " A Moderate Case for Religious Persecution: The Church of England and its Enemies in the Reign of Elizabeth I"

10:45-11:00 a.m.: Coffee break

11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.:

* Jane Schaberg (University of Detroit/Mercy): "Tolerating the Voices of Women"

* Stephen Darwall (University of Michigan): "Respect, Empathy, and Religious Toleration"

2:00-3:30 p.m.:

* Martin Elsky (CUNY Graduate Center), "The European Jew as Cultural Catholic: Religion, Authenticity, and Anti-Nationalism in the Literary Geography of Erich Auerbach"

* John Corvino (Wayne State University): "Homosexuality, Usury, and Biblical Arguments"

3:30-3:45 p.m.: Coffee

3:45 p.m.-4:45 p.m.: Panel discussion


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Conference co-sponsors include: The Center for the Study of Citizenship, The University Honors Program, The Humanities Center, The Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies, and these Departments of the College of Liberal Arts: Classics, Greek and Latin, Near Eastern and Asian Studies, English, History, Political Science, Philosophy, Anthropology, and Romance Languages and Literatures.

For more information on the conference call the English department at 577-2450.

Wayne State University is a premier institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.