Gary Carl (Muhammad) Legenhausen (born May 3, 1953 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) is an American

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

who teaches at the Imam Khomeini's Educational and Research Institute, which was directed by

Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi Ayatollah Taqi Mesbah ( fa, تقی مصباح‌; born Taqi Givechi, fa, تقی گیوه‌چی), commonly known as Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi ( fa, محمدتقی مصباح‌ یزدی, 31 January 1935 – 1 January 2021) was an Iranian Shi' ...

. He converted to Islam in 1983. He wrote a book entitled ''Islam and Religious Pluralism'' in which he advocates "non-reductive religious pluralism". He has been an advocate of interfaith dialogue, and serves on the advisory board of the Society for Religious Studies in

Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...

. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

(1983). He taught philosophy of religion, ethics and epistemology at the Islamic Iranian Academy of Philosophy from 1990 until 1994. Since 1996, he has been studying Islam and teaching Western philosophy and Christianity at the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Iran. He is also a founding member of the advisory board of the Shi`ite Studies Center in Qom, and serves on the scientific board of the Human Rights Center of Mofid University, Qom. Brought up as a Catholic, he abandoned religion shortly after beginning his academic studies at the

State University of New York at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

. In 1979, he became acquainted with Islam through Muslim students at

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

, where he taught from 1979 to 1989. after he was acquainted with

Shi’a Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

, he decided to convert his Catholic faith to Islam.

Bibliography

* Mesbah Yazdi, M.T., ''Philosophical Instructions'' (translation by Muhammad Legenhausen & Azim Sarvdalir) Binghamton University & Brigham Young University, 1999, . * ''Jesus through the Qur'an and Shi'ite Narrations'' (translation by Muhammad Legenhausen & Muntazir Qa'im), Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc., 2005, (translated into Indonesian and Russian; the Russian translation won a Russian Publishers' Association book award). * ''Islam and Religious Pluralism'', London: Al-Hoda, 1999, (translated into Persian, Arabic and Indonesian) * ''Contemporary Topics of Islamic Thought'', Tehran: Al-Hoda, 2000, ; (translated into Persian) * "A Muslim's Proposal: Non-Reductive Religious Pluralism". * Philosophical Instructions: An Introduction to Contemporary Islamic Philosophy * Soul: A Comparative Approach * Proofs for the Existence of God: Contexts – Structures – Relevance * Substance and Attribute: Western and Islamic Traditions in Dialogue * Contemporary Topics of Islamic Thought * Hermeneutical Foundations for Islamic Social Sciences * Islam versus Feminism * Spirituality in Shi’i Islam: An Overview * The ‘Irfan Of The Commander Of The Faithful, Imam ‘Ali, Peace Be With Him * 'Allamah Tabataba'i's Footnote to Mulla Sadra's Proof of the Sincere * Jesus as Kalimat Allah, The Word of God * Hegel’s Ethics * Does God Have a Mind? * Spirituality in Modern Philosophy: Hegel’s Spirituality

References

External links

Gary Carl (Muhammad) Legenhausen - al-islam.org

MuhammadLegenhausen - iki.academia.edu

peacethroughunderstanding.blogspot.com

* ttps://qom.academia.edu/MuhammadLegenhausen qom.academia.edu/MuhammadLegenhausen {{DEFAULTSORT:Legenhausen, Gary 1953 births American male writers American expatriates in Iran Converts to Shia Islam from Catholicism University at Albany, SUNY alumni Rice University alumni Texas Southern University faculty Living people 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers American Shia Muslims Iranian Science and Culture Hall of Fame recipients in Philosophy Imam Khomeini's Educational and Research Institute