Dr. Bryan Rennie, Westminster College Vira L. Heinz Chair in Religion and associate professor of religion, will speak at Faculty Forum Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 11:40 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater in the McKelvey Campus Center.

"For over a century, claims have been made regarding the debt owed by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the Zoroastrian tradition. Despite difficulties in dating the Iranian materials, significant advances have recently been made and a clearer consensus has emerged," Rennie said. "The lack of any significant response from mainstream Biblical and Religious Studies in the Anglophone world is hard to justify. The almost total failure to respond to the claims of scholars of Iranian history cannot be adequately explained in terms of warranted academic caution and understandable uncertainty, but must be attributed to less defensible ideological causes."

Rennie, who has been with Westminster College since 1994, earned his undergraduate degree, master's and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Faculty Forum, established in 1990, serves as a venue for the exchange of ideas and information among Westminster College faculty. Speakers present their research, teaching ideas, lectures, performances, special programs, and uses of technology to keep faculty informed about the work of colleagues from many disciplines.

The event is free and open to the public. Contact Rennie at (724) 946-7151 or e-mail brennie@westminster.edu for more information.

Dr. Byran Rennie