The Center for Jewish Studies is proud to Present Dr. Baruch Halpern as its fifth Gold Foundation Distinguished Lecture of the 2007-2008 academic year. Dr. Halpern will deliver a lecture entitled Method and Disenchantment: the Birth of Science and Religion which explores the legacies of science and religion in the modern era.
Tuesday, February 19th
6:00-8:00PM • Humanities I Room 202
The 'disenchantment' of the ancient world entered a new phase of widespread socialization, during what Karl Jaspers and his successors have called the 'Axial Age'. Political and sociological conditions contributed materially to the new developments, not least in the erection of long-lasting and prosperous trade zones especially around the Mediterranean basin. However, the intellectual and ideological midwives of the birth -- of the haecceity of Western culture, namely, the rejection of tradition -- left indelible imprints on theology and natural science.
Baruch Halpern earned his AB, MA, and PhD from Harvard University and is the author of such books as The Constitution of the Monarchy in Israel, The First Historians and David's Secret Demons. He is a former co-director of the Megiddo Expedition and is Chaiken Family Chair of Jewish Studies, Professor of Ancient History, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, and Religious Studies, and Fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities and member of the Graduate Committee on Social Thought at Penn State. Formerly Professor of Humanities at York University, and currently on the graduate faculty of the University of Toronto, Halpern has held visiting positions at UCSD, Hebrew University and Heidelberg. Fellowships at Munich and the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research. He does not play hockey.