Wednesday, May 7, 2014
6 - 8 p.m.
Main Auditorium (3141 Chestnut St)

The College of Arts and Sciences is proud to announce that Reza Aslan will deliver the fourth lecture in the Drexel University College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecture Series on May 7, 2014 at 6 p.m. in the Main Auditorium. Aslan will join media maven Arianna Huffington, neuroscientist David Eagleman and acclaimed author Sir Salman Rushdie on the growing list of accomplished CoAS distinguished lecturers.

THE JESUS OF HISTORY AND THE CHRIST OF FAITH

In a talk based on his new #1 New York Times bestselling book, Reza Aslan will sift through centuries of mythmaking to shed new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction. He explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.

ABOUT REZA ASLAN

Reza Aslan is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth,” as well as the internationally acclaimed “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,” which was named one of the 100 most important books of the last decade by Blackwell Publishers. He is also the author of “How to Win a Cosmic War,” and is a regular contributing editor to The Daily Beast. In addition, Aslan frequently appears on numerous television shows including “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.” He also gained attention for an appearance on the FOXNews.com show “Spirited Debate” – in which the anchor repeatedly questioned how Aslan, a Muslim, could write a book about the founder of Christianity – that went viral."

Aslan is the President and CEO of Aslan Media Inc., which manages BoomGen Studios, a unique media company focused entirely on entertainment about the Greater Middle East and its Diaspora communities. He holds degrees in religion from Santa Clara University, Harvard and UC Santa Barbara, as well as a master of fine arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction.