Dr. Bruce Lawrence took a perspectivist look at the subject of Allah in his talk “Who Is Allah, Why it Matters” on Tuesday evening at Hartford Seminary.

Dr. Lawrence is Professor of Islamic Studies Emeritus at Duke University and adjunct Professor at Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul. He has decades of experience studying Islam and has written a book also titled “Who Is Allah?”

He spoke on Tuesday about the reasons that “Allah” in Arabic is not easily translatable into the word “God.” He also spoke about various approaches to translating the Qur’an and ways to visualize and understand the essence of “Allah.”

The video of the full lecture can be seen below.