《古蘭經》是伊斯蘭教的經典。對穆斯林而言，它是真主給予世人之救贖之道；但對非信徒而言，《古蘭經》又有何意義呢？

Italo Calvino著作無數，為人好寫是肯定的。在Why Read the Classics一書，他卻要說好讀、愛讀、迷讀經典。Calvino不說教，不以空洞的話語大讚經典偉大，反而坦蕩蕩地說出讀者面對經典的恐慌與困惑，喜樂與驚喜。從Voltaire的Candide，他看到人生的抉擇，Cyrano de Bergerac的The Other World, or the State and Empires of the Moon 讓他享受十七世界登陸月球的奇異幻想。這些，他稱之為「從自由和妙趣引發的智慧」。連繫著這眾多閱讀經驗的，是一個關鍵問題：我如何確立自身和這本書的關係？Calvino沒有答案，但點出在這讀短篇小說、二手文章的年頭，急於求答案正是讀經典的障礙。

二十世紀法國哲學家米歇爾•傅柯(Michel Foucault, 1926-1984)被視為後現代思潮的大旗手，卻於晚年重新發問德國哲學家康德(Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804)於1784年已經提出的「何謂啟蒙？」這一問題，並宣稱康德是把哲學實踐顯現成批判風骨的先驅。把康德和傅柯的〈何謂啟蒙？〉一文一起閱讀，可以看出後現代思潮與現代批判意識之間的承傳和轉化關係。

In 1931, the young Austrian mathematician K. Godel announced a result which changed the humanity’s understanding of mathematics forever. In 1956, Nagel and New published a non-technical article in the magazine Scientific American which explained the proof of Godel. Two years later, the two authors expanded this article to a wonderful little book Godel’s Proof, which motivated the bestseller “Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter.

The suicide of Cleopatra has bequeathed to western culture one of the most famous and memorable death scenes in literature, drama and the visual arts of painting, sculpture and film. The traditional story derives chiefly from the rich narrative of Plutarch’s biography of Mark Antony. Its action is driven by multiple themes of deception, deliberation, and death. The climactic moment, of course, is the bite of the asp. Surveying the literary and visual representations of Cleopatra’s dramatic death, from Horace’s celebrated Cleopatra Ode to the HBO cable network series Rome, this lecture will explore the potent symbolism of the suicide in classical antiquity and subsequent eras. It will try to answer the question whether her final act of dying by the serpent’s bite redeems Cleopatra and death becomes her.

This talk discusses the historical position of the Bible, reviews its impact as a sacred document, as well as literature. Program Outline I.  Its Historical Position Christianity Judaism II.  As Sacred Document Over 2000 years [changed lives; influenced West civilization] C18th/19th [influenced also the East] C 20th/21st  [Post WW2: from evangelism shifting to dialogue] III.  As a Literature Reconstruction of the TEXT NT & OT Linguistic and Conceptual Characteristic, an Illustration