Eric Ziolkowski, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religious Studies at Lafayette College will be the fourth speaker in the Center for the Study of Religion's At-Large Lectures on Religion 2012-2013 Series. His lecture, like all the others in the series, is free and open to all. A reception will follow the lecture.
Abstract: Recent world events have elicited a cottage industry of books on violence and religion. Standing against the historical strife among the three so-called Abrahamic peoples in particular is the celebrated parable of three rings representing the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim “laws” or “faiths.” Best known in its adaptations by Giovanni Boccaccio and Gottfried Ephraim Lessing, the parable combines a speculative explanation of the conflicting truth claims of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, with an implicit plea for tolerance among the three peoples.
This lecture considers from a cross-cultural, comparative perspective the long, complex, multi-linguistic, and multi-ethnic genealogy of the three ring parable, which evolved from earlier tales involving a single pearl or two precious stones, and which gradually accrued, with remarkable centripetal force, a fulsome host of colorful characters, themes, and motifs, ranging from images of pearls and opals to the “myth” of Saladin, each with its own rich religious-literary history. Though lauded as “the earliest declaration of religious toleration we possess in any European language,” this same parable will also be shown, paradoxically, to have deep-seated roots in certain traditions of religious bigotry.