A program of the Encountering Islam Initiative, and co-sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies, the Department of Theology of the University of St. Thomas presents the seventh annual Terence Nichols Memorial Symposium. Dr. Fuad Naeem, Director of the Encountering Islam Initiative introduces Dr. Waleed El-Ansary, the El-Swedey University Chair in Islamic Studies at Xavier University, where he teaches courses on comparative religion, Islamic studies, and religion and science. Dr. El-Ansary holds a Ph.D. in Islamic and Religious Studies from George Washington University and M.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland. His research focuses on the intersection of religion, science, and economics. Economists often dream of developing “systems so perfect that no one will need to be good,” to quote T.S. Eliot. But such attempts can lead to nightmares of socio-economic disintegration and environmental catastrophe. Islam and other religions offer important alternative paradigms linking ethics and aesthetics to economics to re-envision work and economic life to fulfill a hierarchy of spiritual, psychological, and material needs. This “holistic” approach to work and the economy has vast implications for economic theory and practice, offering a new paradigm that promises to solve the socio-economic and environmental crises in which we are currently mired. Such “holistic” economics is in turn based on the spiritual significance, symbolism, and beauty of nature and the cosmos, or God’s “art,” which fulfills a hierarchy of needs. Accordingly, all members of society ideally engage in a vocational occupation corresponding to their spiritual and psychological needs which include the protection of nature. This would not only allow all individuals to best serve the society to which they belong, but also to best realize their perfections. https://cas.stthomas.edu/departments/areas-of-study/theology/encountering-islam/index.html