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Originally Posted by ZenGum
He somewhat over represented his academic qualifications. His PhD is in contemporary sociology of Islam, not history of religions. There were other embellishments.
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You say "embellishments", I say simplifications. He was mercifully and patiently keeping the conversation on the interviewer's level, like any good teacher would. Why would the teacher move on to more advanced aspects of an idea when the student hadn't yet grasped the fundamentals?
I read a little and found that his (PhD) degree is in the sociology of religion, not only Islam. Also, his academic work to that point included a great deal of study and coursework in religion in a historical context (what else is there? religion of today?) giving him justification for his claims to be a historian, in my opinion.
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Leaving aside the fact that the Ph.D. was in the sociology of religion, Reza Aslan’s dissertation adviser, Prof. Mark Juergensmayer, weighed in:
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Originally Posted by Prof. Mark Juergensmayer
Since i was Reza’s thesis adviser at the Univ of California-Santa Barbara, I can testify that he is a religious studies scholar. (I am a sociologist of religion with a position in sociology and an affiliation with religious studies). Though Reza’s PhD is in sociology most of his graduate course work at UCSB was in the history of religion in the dept of religious studies. Though none of his 4 degrees are in history as such, he is a “historian of religion” in the way that that term is used at the Univ of Chicago to cover the field of comparative religion; and his theology degree at Harvard covered Bible and Church history, and required him to master New Testament Greek. So in short, he is who he says he is.
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It is not unreasonable for a person who majored in the sociology of religion to consider himself a historian of religion if his emphasis during study was in history. There is a very large overlap between the fields, especially since “most of his graduate course work was in the history of religion in the dept of religious studies.”
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What other embellishments did you notice?