//Islamic Studies Association marks 40th Anniversary

Islamic Studies Association marks 40th Anniversary

“A Call to Dialogue: Christians in Dialogue with Muslims” edited by Prof. Ambrogio Bongiovanni and Joseph Victor Edwin SJ was presented at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on 23rd February 2022 by Prof. Bryan Lobo SJ, the dean of the faculty of Missiology who moderated the program. Prof. Ambrogio Bongiovanni is a professor of Missiology at the Gregorian University and Joseph Victor Edwin SJ is a teacher of theology and Christian Muslim relations at Vidya Jyoti College of Theology, Delhi. The volume ‘Call to Dialogue’, is a bouquet of essays selected from the last forty volumes of Salaam, the journal of Islamic Studies Association, Delhi, and commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Islamic Studies Association, Delhi.

Prof. Diego Sarrio Cucarella, President of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI), Rome, and Msgr. Indunil Kodithuwakku, Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, presented their review of the volume. Prof. Cucarella commented that Islamic Studies Association, Delhi, is noted not only for its history but also for its ingenuity in establishing links between Christians and Islamic studies. He added that the essays in the volume, demonstrate dialogue between Christians and Muslims from a Catholic perspective, guided by the mission and teaching of Vatican II that unite us to promote and defend the moral values of peace and freedom. Their reflections are often informed by an experience lived on the field. Msgr. Indunil Kodthuwakku, reviewed that our religious identity is crucial for interreligious discourse, but so is our social identity, and how others see us, because religious beliefs impact our identity, attitudes, and behaviour.