Dr. Michael Pregill is a lecturer in Religious Studies at Chapman University. He is a scholar of comparative religiion and the comparative study of scriptural traditions, especially focusing on the Bible and the Qur'an. His book, The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur'an: Scripture, Polemic, and Exegesis from late Antiquity to Islam, won the AAR Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in 2021. His talk will consider the ways in which the oldest European Christian scholarship on the Qur'an in the Middle Ages frequently treated qur'anic narratives on the biblical prophets and related subjects as the result of formative Jewish influences on the Prophet Muhammad. Pregill will explore the problematic ramifications of this approach in how we understand the relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in ways that still impact Qur'anic Studies today.
This event is open to the public.