Islamic Lessons for the Catholic Church: How an Old Rival Can Become a New Friend

About the Speaker

Dr. Gabriel Said Reynolds is the Jerome J. Crowley and Rosaleen G. Crowley Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He holds a BA from Columbia University and a PhD from Yale University. At Notre Dame he teaches classes on Christian theology, Islam, and Christian-Muslim relations. He is the author of several books including: The Qur'an and Its Biblical Subtext (2010), The Emergence of Islam (2012), The Qurʾan and the Bible (2018) and Allah: God in the Qur'an (2020). He’s also authored innumerable articles, book chapters, and edited books such as “The Quran in Its Historical Context” and “the Quran in its Historical Context 2”. Dr. Reynolds is also one of the co-founders of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA).

Streaming Media

Start Date

3-10-2025 7:00 PM

Description

While the Catholic Church in the West has experienced a wave of disaffiliation over the past few decades, Islam has grown significantly. This growth is due not only to immigration and demographics, but also to conversions. What can the Catholic Church learn from the success of Islam? In this 2025 Killeen lecture I will present elements of Islamic theology that animate the spiritual life of many Muslims: the mystery of God, the life of the believer as a “test,” the tension between divine mercy and justice, and the fervor for faith proclamation, known as dawah. Together these elements might serve Catholics today as lessons which, in a distinctive way, might be brought back into the life of the Catholic Church. Thereby, I propose, an old rival of the Church might become a new friend.

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Mar 10th, 7:00 PM

Islamic Lessons for the Catholic Church: How an Old Rival Can Become a New Friend

While the Catholic Church in the West has experienced a wave of disaffiliation over the past few decades, Islam has grown significantly. This growth is due not only to immigration and demographics, but also to conversions. What can the Catholic Church learn from the success of Islam? In this 2025 Killeen lecture I will present elements of Islamic theology that animate the spiritual life of many Muslims: the mystery of God, the life of the believer as a “test,” the tension between divine mercy and justice, and the fervor for faith proclamation, known as dawah. Together these elements might serve Catholics today as lessons which, in a distinctive way, might be brought back into the life of the Catholic Church. Thereby, I propose, an old rival of the Church might become a new friend.