One of these was Marshall Hodgson, a great American scholar of Islam who died in 1968 while jogging on the University of Chicago campus. Toggling between Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and Hodgson’s “Venture,” it’s hard to believe they’re discussing the same religion. In Islam Hodgson found one of the most creative and the most excellent of our collective human enterprises. For much of history, Islamic and otherwise, the pursuit of knowledge and the practice of faith were a single project. There was so much Hodgson wanted to do: a comprehensive world history; an epic poem with science-fiction elements.

Source: New York Times October 06, 2016 09:00 UTC