American Religious Darwinism: Teaching Islam in American Protestant Seminaries during the Gilded Age
David Grafton
Hartford International University for Religion and Peace
Date:听Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Time:听12 - 1pm
Location:听24 Quincy Road, Conference Room
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Throughout the 19th century, Islam appeared regularly in the curricula of American Protestant seminaries. Islam was not only the focus of Christian missions but was studied as part of the history of the Church, within the field of Biblical Studies, as well as in the new field of comparative religions. This lecture, drawn from the speaker鈥檚 new book听Muhammad in the Seminary: Protestant Teaching about Islam in the Nineteenth Century听(NYU Press, 2024), explores the way Protestants utilized the Qur鈥檃n within Old Testament Studies, and how they viewed Islam as an important part of the evolution of religions culminating in an American Christianity.
The Rev. Dr. David D. Grafton is the Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations on the faculty of听the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations听at Hartford International University. The Duncan Black Macdonald Center is the oldest center of its kind in the United States. Dr. Grafton holds a PhD in Islamic Studies, from the Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, University of Birmingham, England, an MDiv from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, and a BA from Capital University, Columbus, Ohio.
Prior to his appointment at Hartford International University, Dr. Grafton served as the asociate professor of Islamic studies and Christian Muslim relations at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and director of graduate studies (2008-2016), the coordinator of graduate studies and director of the Center for Middle East Christianity at the Evangelical (Presbyterian) Theological Seminary in Cairo (2003-2008), and adjunct lecturer in Islamic studies at the Dar Comboni Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Cairo, Egypt (2000-2008).
Dr. Grafton鈥檚 academic interests focus on the history of Christian-Muslim relationships, Lutheranism and Islam, Christian theological perspectives on Islam, the history of Christianity in the Middle East, American Christian perspectives of religion and society in the Middle East. He is the author of numerous articles, and chapters of books on Christian-Muslim relations, as well as听The Christians of Lebanon: Political Rights in Islamic Law听(I.B. Tauris, 2004), and听Piety, Politics and Power: Lutherans Encountering Islam in the Middle East听(Wipf and Stock, 2009),听The Contested Origins of the 1865 Arabic Bible: Contributions to the Nineteenth Century Nahda听(Brill, 2015). He was the North American Sections editor for the bibliographic history听Christian-Muslim Relations: A Biographical History 1500-1900听(Brill, 2016, 2020), including vols. 11 and 16, and听An American Biblical Orientalism: The Construction of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Piety听(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). His most recent publication is听Muhammad in the Seminary: Protestant Teaching about Islam in the Nineteenth Century听(New York University Press, 2024).
Dr. Grafton often speaks to community groups, congregations, mosques and Islamic centers about interfaith dialogue and relationships, Islam, and Christian-Muslim relations. He is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has served Lutheran congregations in New Jersey, England, and an international congregation in Cairo, Egypt.
Photo credits: Christopher Soldt, MTS