To celebrate the unveiling of the Gates of Paradise at the MOA, we're hosting a panel discussion with leaders of various faith traditions, including Monsignor Timothy Verdon, Imam Ahmad Salah, and Dr. Maeera Schreiber. Together, they will discuss the value of the stories featured in the Gates of Paradise to the Abrahamic religions and answer questions from the audience.
Submit Questions in Advance Here
About the Panelists:
Monsignor Timothy Verdon* is a Roman Catholic priest, art historian and museum director. He is a celebrated scholar of sacred art and has written extensively on Medieval and Renaissance art. He has curated numerous exhibitions in the US and abroad. His newest book, The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo’s Magnum Opus, explores one of the great masterworks of western art – its history, its purpose, and its legacy as a symbol of Christianity’s deep interconnection with artistic expression. As Director of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Cathedral museum) in Florence, he is the steward of some of the greatest sculptures of the Central Italian Renaissance, by Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca dell Robbia, Michelangelo and many others. He oversaw the museum’s dramatic re-installation in 2012-15, converting the Museo dell’Opera into one of the finest sculpture museums in the world. He is responsible for a further enlargement of the museum, which is currently underway.
Rabbi Dr. Maeera Y. Shreiber is Associate Professor English and former Director of Religious Studies at the University Utah, where she teaches and writes about poetry, Jewish-American literature, ethnic American studies, religious studies, and interfaith relations. She is the author of Singing in a Strange Land: A Jewish American Poetics and Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone. The latter charts a new way of thinking about interreligious relations as it focuses on modern and contemporary writers (novelists and poets) who traffic in the volatile space between Judaism and Christianity and calls attention to the creative implications of these intense encounters. She is also an ordained Rabbi and serves as a spiritual leader for a Reconstructionist Jewish community in Salt Lake.
Dr. Ahmad Salah serves as the BYU Muslim Students Imam and ecclesiastical leader. He has been serving in this role for over 15 years. He earned his PhD from Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in 2008 and MBA from BYU in 2016. He is a registered civil engineer here in Utah and has his own engineering consulting firm that is based here in Draper, Utah. His wife teaches part time here at BYU and his two daughters are graduating from BYU this April. Dr. Salah is a long time interfaith enthusiast and believes in bridging the gaps between cultures. He has been involved in many interfaith discussions, panels, conferences in the past two decades. The Salah family has been living in Utah county for almost 25 years now. They are true Utahns and they bleed blue. Go Cougars.
