Advance Screening of “Believer” With Reza Aslan
The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and CNN will be presenting an advance screening of the new original documentary series, Believer, on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. The screening, which is co-hosted by the BU Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, will be followed by a question and answer session with acclaimed public intellectual Reza Aslan, who presents and hosts the series.
The event will be held at the School of Law Auditorium at 765 Commonwealth Avenue, on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 from 5:00-6:30pm. It will include a advance screening of one of the episodes, titled “Aghori in India”, which will be followed by a question and answer seassion with the series host Reza Aslan, moderated by Professor Jessica Stern. This is a free event, but requires registration, which can be done by emailing eventsps@bu.edu.
In this episode, religions scholar Reza Aslan journeys to the holy city of Varanasi, India’s famed “City of the Dead,” where the Ganges River is lit by the funeral pyres of dozens of crematoriums. He enters the world of the Aghori, a sect of Hindus who reject traditional Karmic notions of purity and pollution. Reza lets an Aghori guru put him through extreme rituals, visits a modern day leper colony, and attempts to purify himself in the notoriously polluted Ganges.
The series, Believer with Reza Aslan, will begin airing on CNN on March 5, 2017. Here is a series promo:
Reza Aslan is an internationally renowned writer, commentator, professor, producer, and scholar of religion. His best-selling books include Zealot and No God But God. Aslan is a tenured Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community, which supports atheists, agnostics, and humanists at home and abroad. A member of the American Academy of Religions, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Qur’anic Studies Association, Aslan’s previous academic positions include the Wallerstein Distinguished Professor of Religion, Community and Conflict at Drew University in New Jersey (2012-2013), and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Iowa (2000-2003).