• Classical and modern Vedanta
• Political Hinduism 
• Indian Christian Theology

• The Romantic appropriation of the Sanskrit tradition
• Comparative philosophy of religion

• Modern Jewish religious thought and philosophy (esp. Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas)
• Theories and practices of interreligious dialogue and communication
• The (contested) relationship between scripture and philosophy, both in the Jewish intellectual tradition and more generally
• Aspects of ethics, hermeneutics and theopolitics in classical rabbinic literature

• Sufism and the development of the Ottoman learned institution
• Computerised hadith databases
• Muslim-Christian relations

• Classical and modern Vedanta
• Political Hinduism 
• Indian Christian Theology

• The Romantic appropriation of the Sanskrit tradition
• Comparative philosophy of religion

• European ethnography, particularly Britain & France
• Anthropological theory
• The anthropology of religion

• Social scientific study of religion
• Contemporary religious history
• Psychology of Religion

• Modern Jewish religious thought and philosophy (esp. Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas)
• Theories and practices of interreligious dialogue and communication
• The (contested) relationship between scripture and philosophy, both in the Jewish intellectual tradition and more generally
• Aspects of ethics, hermeneutics and theopolitics in classical rabbinic literature

• Sufism and the development of the Ottoman learned institution
• Computerised hadith databases
• Muslim-Christian relations

• Sufism and the development of the Ottoman learned institution
• Computerised hadith databases
• Muslim-Christian relations

• Science and the Hindu traditions

• Classical Vedanta
• Truth and inter-religious dialogue
• 19th century Bengal
• Hindu images

• Religious language and Naming God
• Science and religion, especially in relation to Creation
• Form and content in theological writing
• The symbolics of gender
• Christian origins and the metaphysics of scripture

Comparative literalisms: an assessment of Christian and Islamic fundamentalist scriptural hermeneutics through the writings of Falwell, Rushdoony, Qutb and Al-Maqdisi

Heritage & the Holy Spirit - Pentecostalism and the handling the past in contemporary Nigeria

The Multiverse and Participatory Metaphysics

Scriptural Reasoning from the Perspective of the Islamic Tradition

Claims about friendship, hospitality, learning scripture, arguing, and proselytizing appear in both Scriptural Reasoning literature and practice: in descriptions of, guidance through, and advocacy for the practice of Scriptural Reasoning. My thesis begins with an initial framework, with the identification of these claims, and a sketch of the background from which the authors’ statements emerged (eg. which traditions or texts are they drawing upon). I will then examine the six claims about Scriptural Reasoning through the lens of the Islamic tradition. I am looking at the claims in light of the history of Muslim attitudes towards/relationships with Jews and Christians and with the scriptures of Jews and Christians. I am exploring questions such as: Is there theological support for these claims? Is there anything theologically at stake with these claims? For historical responses to these questions, I will look to the Qur’an, classical and modern tafsīr, hadīth, and supporting secondary literature. For contemporary responses to these questions, I will look to contemporary scholarship and I will conduct anthropological fieldwork. The fieldwork takes place in Scriptural Reasoning groups, Qur'anic study circles, and hadith study circles in Blackburn, UK.

The goal of my research is to construct a dialogue between voices of Scriptural Reasoning and voices from the Islamic tradition. I will propose how the claims might be qualified, revised, or reaffirmed in light of this dialogue, considering possible implications and responses. I will also address other audiences, scholars of interfaith dialogue and Islam/interfaith relations, offering to them insight into possible ways of thinking about language used—and the potential implications of such language—in descriptions of other types of interfaith dialogue, and demonstrating one practical way of examining that language.

Jospeh Soloveitchik and Inter-faith Dialogue

MPhil student in Study of World Religions

MPhil student in Study of World Religions

Friendship with non-Muslims: a critical analysis of the views of pre-modern and modern Qur'anic exegetics

The Understanding of Speech and Language in the Thought of Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneerson

MPhil student in Study of World Religions

A Conceptual Analysis of Possible Reconciliations and Integrations of Evolutionary and Islamic Thought

Functional Hermeneutics: Articulating the Moral Significance of Qur'anic Narratives

MPhil student in Study of World Religions

Ethnographic Study of a Christian Ashram in India

The Ontology of the Beatific Vision in the Classical Ash'arī School 

Ibn Sina's Philosophy of Mathematics

Suhrawardī's Illuminationist Philosophy