The Yerushah Lecture 2012 by Professor Norbert Samuelson (14th February 2012)
This year's Yerushah Lecture will be given by Professor Norbert Samuelson, Grossman Chair of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall on:
"Light and Enlightenment: A Brief Comparative History of the Correlations Between Scientific and Rabbinic Conceptions of Light"
Tuesday 14 February at 5 pm
All are welcome
The Yerushah Lecture is delivered annually by a distinguished speaker within the area of Jewish Studies. It is generously supported by the Righteous Persons Foundation
Norbert M. Samuelson is an internationally renowned scholar of Jewish philosophy, who is the author of twelve books and over 200 articles. He is notably the author of four major constructive philosophic-theological works: The First Seven Days: A Philosophical Commentary on the Creation of Genesis (1992), Judaism and the Doctrine of Creation (1994), Revelation and the God of Israel (2002), and Jewish Faith and Modern Science (2009). These works brought Jewish thinkers to focus on the interplay between science and religion and showed how the biblical text could be better understood in the light of contemporary physics and the life sciences.
At present Prof. Samuelson is involved with two major research and writing projects: an intellectual history of the developing concepts of light in physics and enlightenment in the Abrahamic religions, and a close philosophical commentary on the traditional rabbinic prayer book.
Professor Samuelson has articulated a distinctly Jewish way of doing philosophy, and demonstrated how to think creatively and precisely about the interface of reason and faith.