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I think you guys missed the point of the interview and what Lauren Green was after while doing the interview.
For starters, he does not have a PhD in the history of religions. Aslan has four degrees: a Bachelors of Religious Studies from Santa Clara University; a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School; a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa; and a PhD in sociology of religions from the University of California, Santa Barbara (his dissertation was on ?Global Jihadism: a transnational social movement.
Aslan also claims that he has a degree in the New Testament. But is this true? Santa Clara doesn?t offer a degree in the New Testament so he can?t be talking about his Bachelors. Perhaps he is referring to the Master?s of Theological Studies degree he earned from Harvard Divinity School in 1999. That school does offer an ?area of focus? in ?New Testament and Early Christianity.? Is Aslan claiming this was his degree?s area of focus at Harvard? (If so, this would make his claim about having a ?degree in New Testament? misleading, at best.)
While this is a possibility, it raises the question of how ? armed with only a Master?s degree with a focus on the New Testament ? he became the first full-time professor of Islam in the history of the state of Iowa.
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