Michael Allan Cook, University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, gave the Sorensen Lecture at Yale Divinity School on Thursday, April 11, 5:30pm. Cook spoke on “Muslim Sectarianism Past and Present.”

A graduate of Cambridge (King’s College) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, Cook taught at SOAS for nearly 20 years before joining the Princeton faculty in 1986. His long list of publications includes Forbidding Wrong in Islam: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2003) and Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective (Princeton, 2014).

In his YDS lecture, Cook explores why the level of sectarian conflict has been higher within Islam in recent decades than within Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. He asks: Does this contrast arise from features of Muslim sectarianism inherited from pre-modern times? Is it the result of modern historical contingencies? Or some combination of the two?

The Margaret Lindquist Sorensen Lectureship at YDS was established in 1978 by a gift from her son, Dr. Andrew A. Sorensen, B.D. 1962, to provide an annual lecture on politics and ethics.