Nostra Aetate and Catholic-Muslim Relations
In this first episode of Season 3, Avraham Burg speaks with Gabriel Reynolds, Professor of Theology at Notre Dame, about his personal and academic journey from suburban Connecticut to becoming a leading scholar of Islamic studies and Comparative Theology.
Experience the Episode
Presented by Notre Dame Jerusalem
In this first episode of Season 3, Avraham Burg speaks with Gabriel Reynolds, Professor of Theology at Notre Dame, about his personal and academic journey from suburban Connecticut to becoming a leading scholar of Islamic studies and Comparative Theology. Reynolds shares how his roots in the region, travels to the Middle East, and academic curiosity led him to study the Quran from a historical-critical perspective, emphasizing its engagement with Biblical traditions. They also explore the theological and sociopolitical complexities of Islam’s relationship with Christianity and Judaism, the integration of Muslims in the West, and the evolution of Western Islam, particularly in the United States. Throughout, Reynolds highlights the importance of interreligious understanding grounded in human dignity, while acknowledging deep theological differences between faith traditions.
MoreMeet the Moderator: Avraham Burg
Thinker, writer and peace activist, Avraham (Avrum) Burg began his political career in the movement against the Lebanon War. He continued on to a long political career where he served in a variety of public positions including in the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party, Speaker of the Knesset, and Chairman of the Jewish Agency.
Mr. Burg is the author of several books including God is Back, The Holocaust is Over; We Must Rise from its Ashes, Avishag, and Very Near to You. He writes articles on current affairs that are published in major newspapers around the world. In addition to serving as an adjunct faculty member at The University of Notre Dame’s Jerusalem Global Gateway, he also teaches at NYU Abu Dhabi and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.
Meet the Faculty: Gabriel Reynolds
Gabriel Said Reynolds did his doctoral work at Yale University in Islamic Studies. Currently he researches the Qur’ān and Muslim/Christian relations and is Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame. He is the author of The Qur’ān and Its Biblical Subtext (Routledge 2010) and The Emergence of Islam (Fortress, 2012), the translator of ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s Critique of Christian Origins (BYU 2008), and editor of The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context (Routledge 2008) and New Perspectives on the Qur’ān: The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context 2 (Routledge 2011). In 2012-13 Prof. Reynolds directed, along with Mehdi Azaiez, “The Qurʾān Seminar,” a year-long collaborative project dedicated to encouraging dialogue among scholars of the Qurʾān, the acts of which appeared as The Qurʾān Seminar Commentary (De Gruyter, 2016). In 2018 he published The Qurʾan and the Bible with Yale University Press and in 2020 Allah: God in the Qur’an, also with YUP. At Notre Dame he teaches courses on theology, Muslim/Christian Relations, and Islamic Origins. He runs a youtube channel, “Exploring the Qur’an and the Bible” that features conversations on scripture with leading scholars.