Brain Fuel

“Peace on earth, good will towards Man” would be the end of the world as we know it. Since the beginning of recorded civilization, some 6000 years ago, the three religions who trace their origins back to the Patriarch Abraham have been making war on someone. What is inherent in monotheism and in the three faiths that most clearly represent it—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—that has made them so aggressive? The world was once destroyed by flood; all three faiths believe that it will once again be destroyed by flames. Is this inevitable? What do we mean by the end of time? Will our grandchildren live to have children? How does an academic approach to the study of these topics prepare us for the world to come? What is Millennialism? Eschatology? The meaning of the Apocalypse?

Sol Gittleman is the Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor at Tufts University — one of three current “university professors” at the school. He has been a celebrated lecturer on the Tufts campus since he started teaching there in 1966. From 1981 until 2002, he was the school’s Provost, and today he continues to teach on German Civilization and the rise of Nazism, immigration, and American baseball history. Professor Gittleman has received two Fulbright awards, the Harbison Prize of the Danforth Foundation for Outstanding Teaching, and a citation as Professor of the Year from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.