Dominic Longo, an assistant professor of theology and director of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), will lecture on his new book Spiritual Grammar: Genre and the Saintly Subject in Islam and Christianity on Oct. 5 at 5:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. The salient characteristic of this genre of religious literature is that it makes constant references to the grammatical structures of language as a metaphor for how the self is structurally embedded in spiritual reality. Two medieval religious texts will serve as the main examples, The Grammar of Hearts (Naḥw al-qulūb) by Sufi shaykh and Islamic scholar ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Qushayrī and Moralized Grammar (Donatus moralizatus) by Christian theologian Jean Gerson. An alumnus of Boston College, Longo also holds degrees from Harvard University. Sponsor: Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lecture Series.