We are pleased to announce the launch of an international Reading Group on Philosophy in Interfaith Contexts which will explore this large subject from insider and outsider perspectives, in both reading and debate format.
Philosophy of religion engages with most of the areas of religious and secular life such as the nature and function of religion itself, alternative concepts of God and Ultimate Reality, general features of cosmos (e.g., the laws of nature, the emergence of consciousness, the essence of energy and matter), interpretation of historical events (e.g., the Holocaust, 9/11), and secular worldviews (e.g. philosophical naturalism) that are alternatives to religious worldviews, as well as all the main areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, applied ethics, philosophy of language, science, history, politics, arts, and film. More recently Comparative Philosophy has started to engage with traditions outside the Abrahamic faiths, including Asian, African, and Latin American traditions.
This Philosophy Group suggests that ontology and metaphysics both represent a safe foundation for any interfaith conversation and provide the basis for worldviews – secular or religious – to either meet or split. One of the aims of the Group is to focus on interfaith aspects of philosophical topics by means of a selection of readings.
We will meet once a month via Zoom, for 1 hour, to discuss a specific theme related to the Philosophy of Religion. An invited speaker will introduce and read a short text which will have been circulated previously to those registered for the respective session. The presentation will be followed by an open discussion.
The Reading Group is open to anyone, and we invite you to register your initial interest below.
International Interfaith Advisory Board
Professor Abdullah Antepli, Associate Professor of the Practice of Interfaith Relations at Duke Divinity School and Associate Professor of the Practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy at the Duke University, USA
Professor Clemence Boulouque, Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies, Columbia University, NY, USA
Professor Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, USA, and President of the Catholic Theological Society of America.
Dr Fitzroy Morrissey, Examination Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford, UK
Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, FBA, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University, UK
Dr Edward Skidelsky, College of Social Sciences and International Studies, Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK
Gallery of Events
- Holy Envy: Faith, Truth and Interfaith Understanding
- Doing Comparative Theology Through a Decolonial Lens
- Matteo Ricci and the Problem of Religious Translation
- Human Equality and Abrahamic Monotheism
- Moral and Spiritual Courage: A Muslim Perspective
- A Religious Crucible: Elia Benamozegh (1823-1900), Jewish Universalism and Interreligious Encounters
- Reaching beyond Metaphysics: God of Love, God beyond Being in Two Traditions
- Embodied Cognition and the Soul: Lessons from Cognitive Science and Christian Eschatology
- An Islamic Philosophy of Plurality: Shah Waliullah of Delhi (1703-62) on the Unity and Diversity of Humanity
- Holistic Wisdom from a Chinese Perspective
- Historical Suffering and Agency: Alternative Conceptions of Power in the Jewish Philosophical Thought of Hermann Cohen
- HMD 2023: Development in Catholic Teaching about and Relations with Jews since World War II
- How Christians Can Learn from the Devotional Poetry of Hindu South India
- Can Aristotle’s Ideas on Akrasia Shed Light on the Account of Original Sin in Gen 3:1-6?
