When the Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad, it arrived in the language of his place and time—Arabic. To this day, for virtually all Muslims whether Arab or not, the Qur’an only truly exists in Arabic. You can read an English translation, there are many to choose from, but the Qur’an is said to defy translation.
In this episode, Bruce B. Lawrence of Duke University joins us to talk about his latest book, The Koran in English: A Biography. It’s part of Princeton University Press’s Lives of Great Religious Books series. We’re also joined in this episode by Dr. David D. Peck from BYU-Idaho. Dr. Peck was a Maxwell Institute visiting scholar this summer.
Bruce and David tell us all about the history of the English translation of one of the world’s most renowned scriptures, the Koran. Is it possible to render God’s words in human language? For Muslims, is it possible to do that in any other language than Arabic?
Special Episodes: “Lives of Great Religious Books”
This ongoing series of MIPodcast episodes features interviews with authors of volumes in Princeton University Press’s “Lives of Great Religious Books” series. Leading experts examine the origins of books like the Book of Mormon, the Bhagavad Gita, Augustine’s Confessions, and C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. They trace shifts in the reception, influence, and interpretation of these landmark texts.
About the Guests
Bruce B. Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor Emeritus of Religion at Duke University. His many books include Who Is Allah?; and Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence. He is the author of The Koran in English: A Biography, part of Princeton University Press’s Lives of Great Religious Books series.
David D. Peck is a professor of history at Brigham Young University-Idaho. He specializes in the history of the Middle East and Islamic Civilization. His current research focuses on comparative theology, particularly shared concepts of pre-mortal existence and ontological progression found in Mormonism and Sufism. Dr. Peck was a visiting scholar at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship during the summer of 2017.
The post The Koran in English, with Bruce Lawrence and David Peck [MIPodcast #72] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.
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When the Lotus Sutra arrived in Boston in 1844 the few people who could read it were intrigued by its parables that reminded them of the Bible. For these westerners, the Lotus was like a gateway into a mysterious and profound culture from across the world. But it took a long time to get there, from India to China, Japan, and beyond, and the most exciting history occurred before it ever reached Europe.
Donald S. Lopez, Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, and a biography of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. His latest book is 
When the Protestant Reformer John Calvin published his book Institutes of the Christian Religion in the 1500s, he couldn’t have anticipated the incredibly different purposes his book would come to serve long after he died and was buried somewhere in an unmarked grave by his own request. The Institutes was a blockbuster in Calvin’s day, but why, hundreds of years later, did it wind up playing a part in debates about apartheid in South Africa? How did the exact same book manage to help some people justify racial discrimination, but also help others powerfully oppose it?
Bruce Gordon is the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School. His books include Calvin, a biography of the reformer, and The Swiss Reformation. His latest book is a biography of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. It is part of Princeton University Press’s Lives of Great Religious Books series.
C. S. Lewis died in 1963 on the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Before the decade was over, few expected his works to last. “We think Lewis’s star has risen and is about to set,” said one Catholic publisher. “His day is over. No one will be reading C. S. Lewis twenty years from now.” Even Lewis believed his apologetic works would soon go out of style. He’d be surprised to learn that over 3.5 million copies of Mere Christianity have sold since 2001. It’s one of the most beloved Christian books of the twentieth century, and it wasn’t originally intended to be a book at all.
George M. Marsden is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus at The University of Notre Dame. He specializes in American religion and culture, evangelicalism, and the role of Christianity in higher education. His critically-acclaimed books include The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (Oxford University Press, 1997), The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (OUP, 1994), and the Bancroft award-winning biography of Jonathan Edwards. His new book is called