 Dr.
Steven
Blackburn
serves as the Seminary's Library Director (fully
one-fourth of the Library's holdings are in Arabic) and is a
Faculty Associate in
Semitic
Scriptures.
Dr.
Blackburn’s interest in Islam dates back to his grandparents,
who were born in Algiers. He
studied at the Bourguiba Institute in Tunis, Tunisia as well as
the American University in Cairo, and holds a Ph.D. from the
University of St. Andrews in Scotland, with his thesis, “The
Early Arabic Versions of the Book of Job”, treating the
interplay of linguistics and theology among Arabic speaking Jews,
Christians, and Muslims.
An
ordained Congregational-Christian minister, Blackburn’s Middle
Eastern experiences include work with Saudi Bedouins in the field
of literacy. Closer
to home, he has served on the board of the National Council of
Churches Office for Christian-Muslim Relations, and was pro-tem
chair of the Middle East Studies Program at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut, where he was Lecturer in Religion and
Modern Languages. In
1991 he completed a catalogue of the Arabic manuscript collection
at the Seminary, numbering over 1200 volumes.
Among the courses Blackburn has taught in addition to
Arabic are An Introduction to Islam, Islamic Mysticism, Readings
in the Qur’an, and Readings in the Hadith. |
