Boniuk Center at Rice University is pleased to present
A book signing with Dr. Jill Carroll
The Author of the New Book
A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gulen's Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse
Tuesday April 24, 2007, 11:30 AM @ Humanities Courtyard

Summary:
In A Dialogue of Civilizations, Dr. Jill Carroll provides a forum for interfaith dialogue through the progressive Islamic ideals of Turkish intellectual and philosopher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, who is renowned worldwide for his work promoting education, cross-cultural dialogue and the reconciliation of science and faith, has spent his life triving to solve societal and spiritual ills.
Gulen's theories are presented alongside those of well-known philosophers-Kant, Confucius, Plato, Sartre and John Stuart Mill-creating a discussion on basic humanistic subjects, such as freedom, education and inherent human dignity.
Through this open conversation across time and culture, Dr. Carroll reveals the essential principles and deeply-held convictions that bind us all together, no matter what our religious beliefs.

About the Author:
Dr. Jill Carroll is the associate director for the Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University, as well as an associate adjunct professor in religious studies. Well-respected for her work promoting religious tolerance and for her thorough understanding of Gulen's ideals. Carroll wrote "A Dialogue of Civilizations" following her numerous trips to Turkey where she had the opportunity to visit schools and institutions founded by the people in the Gulen movement. She currently resides in Houston, Texas.

Lunch will be served. The book will be available for purchase at signing for $10

Blurbs for A Dialogue of Civilizations

I particularly enjoyed Dr. Carroll's inclusion of Gülen's thoughts on human beings "possessing value higher even than angels"-thoughts also developed in the writings of the Apostle Paul and Saint Gregory Palamas. This book will be of great benefit in acknowledging the common dignity of all human beings.

Rt. Rev. Alexei Smith
Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer
Archdiocese of Los Angeles

* * *

In this brilliant and timely book Dr. Jill Carroll describes effectively not only the
need for dialogue, she also shows us the critical way forward. In the spirit of Rumi Dr. Jill Carroll invites all to come to the table to discuss the truth about ourselves and our world.

Dr. Jill Carroll's subject is Fetullah Gulen, the Sufi leader who has supplied the spiritual architecture for a civil movement rapidly changing the landscape of many countries. She situates Gulen within the broader humanistic discourse on key questions of liberty, tolerance, education and "the good." Dr. Carroll has a unique way of taking complicated questions and putting them on the bottom shelf so anyone can reach them. I know of no one more competent, more compassionate to guide us through these crucial questions.

Dr. David B. Capes
College of Arts and Humanities
Houston Baptist University

* * *
By discussing ideas of the contemporary Muslim thinker Fethullah Gülen in comparison to ancient and modern philosophers, Dr. Carroll goes beyond the false dichotomy of "Islam versus the West," which has been overemphasized since the end of the Cold War, especially in the aftermath of 9/11.

Ahmet Kuru
San Diego State University

* * *

This study is sure to challenge the reader and illuminate the opportunities for improved human understanding that cross-cultural religious dialogue offers to the peoples of the twenty-first century.

Bradley K. Hawkins, Ph.D.
California State University Long Beach

* * *

B. Jill Carroll's A Dialogue of Civilizations is a deeply suggestive work seeking to juxtapose key seminal ideas from across the centuries and around the world. When we can identify both core points of agreement and disagreement, dialogue is desirable, indeed needful, and at its most interesting and potentially productive stage.

Daniel Skubik
California Baptist University

* * *

Jill Carroll's _A Dialogue of Civilizations_ offers a timely riposte to theories that civilizations can only clash. Bringing together intellectual and spiritual giants from the East and the West, this "textual dialogue" shows how the commitment to the dignity of all humans can guide us towards shared moral and social values. These values resonate centrally in the writings of Turkish Islamic teacher, preacher, and scholar Fethullah Gülen, whom Carroll convincingly - and sometimes provocatively - draws into conversation with Confucius, Plato, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and Jean Paul Sartre. This dialogue on the urgent questions of human value, moral dignity, leadership, freedom, education and responsibility not only offers a platform, but also articulates a method, for seeking common ground in our global era.

--Dr. Bernadette Andrea, Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English, Classics, and Philosophy, University of Texas at San Antonio