Disciples Divinity House

Rachel Abdoler was presented the J. Coert Rylaarsdam Prize at the Divinity School Pinning and Hooding Ceremony on June 5. It recognizes a Divinity School student who has made special efforts to promote interfaith relations with particular reference to the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions.

A Disciples House Scholar and MDiv graduate, Rachel defended her PhD dissertation on May 28 and was awarded "distinction" for the defense. Titled, Between Defense and Devotion: Butrus al-Sadamantī’s Kitāb al-Tashīh in Its 13th Century Copto-Islamic Milieu, her dissertation seeks to deepen the understanding of the thirteenth-century “Golden Age” in Copto-Arabic literature by focusing on the largely overlooked thinker Butrus al-Sadamantī, and his lengthy commentary on the events of Christ’s passion as found across the four gospels. The dissertation includes the first critical edition of the Arabic text based on extant manuscripts from the Vatican Library, Syria, and Egypt. Her research was supported by a Fulbright-Hayes Dissertation Research Abroad Award this past year.