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Edited by Prof Peter Tyler.Close
Variously known as ‘The Jerusalem of the West’ and ‘The City of Three Cultures’ for many centuries, Toledo, Spain was the place where Eastern and Western cultures met and cross-fertilized. The scholarship of Toledo was instrumental in ensuring the first translation of the Qu’ran out of Arabic by a group of scholars working in the famous ‘School of Translators’ and to this day the unique blend of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures is seen in the literature, art, and spirituality inspired by this great city.
This book arises out of a historic meeting in 2022 when a group of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish practitioners and scholars met over a week to discuss ways in which the inspirations of medieval Spain could help our present world-crisis of mistrust and misapprehension. To this end the group looked at conflicting views of Spanish Convivencía (‘Living Together’) and how the lessons and warnings of medieval Spain might resonate today in our own highly charged situation of inter-faith conflict and suspicion.
Having been initiated by Catholic scholars at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, the inspiration of the dialogues was to deepen interfaith understanding, following the template set by St Pope Paul VI in his 1965 Encyclical, Ecclesium Suam and recently revived by Pope Francis in his latest Encyclical Fratelli Tutti (2020). As a further goal, following well-publicised incidents of radicalised violence in the UK in recent years, we aimed to reach out to and support those working directly to nurture community cohesion, especially within religious ministry.
Accordingly, the book will contain chapters inspired by the writing, of amongst others, Professors Sara Sviri and Harvey Hames of Israel; Archbishop Kevin McDonald and Bishop Anthony Ball, Professor Peter Tyler, Dr Michael Kirwan SJ, Dr Zin Defoufi, Fr Alex Ezechukwu OCD, Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi, and Sr Jo Robson OCD.
We anticipate that the book will be of great interest to a number of different but inter-connected audiences, primarily: pastoral workers and ministers who want to understand more about interfaith dialogue; ministers of religion who want to understand more about other faiths; psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and pastoral workers, and therapists working with people of different faiths, especially around deradicalisation; undergraduate and postgraduate students of theology, philosophy, and psychology; and seminarians and those in training for ministry and leadership. The outputs will also be of interest to radicalised members of society in need of reintegration into mainstream religion; and lay people with an interest in religious history and practice including humanists and atheists, as well as Buddhists and other non-Christians. The principles of dialogue espoused will be of wider application to other situations.
Published: September 2024
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Edited by Andre Alves (Catholic University of Portugal and St Mary’s University, Twickenham) and Philip Booth (St Mary’s University, Twickenham).
With forewords by Most Rev John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark and Rt Hon Ruth Kelly, member of the Council for the Economy, the Vatican.
This new publication from St Mary’s University Press promotes a better understanding of the link between Catholic social thought and public policy. A subsidiary purpose is to examine the relationship between public policy, business, and civil society. These are difficult themes to address. Experts on public policy do not generally have the theological background to ensure that Catholic social thought is considered in an appropriately scholarly way. At the same time, it is relatively rare for theologians to have the specialist knowledge to cross the empirical and theoretical bridge to subjects such as economics and political economy so that they can make appropriate prudential judgements. However, as interest in Catholic social thought grows, the number of people with the necessary breadth of intellectual experience has been increasing. This book brings together a number of those scholars to produce a collection of thoughtful chapters on issues such as Thomistic thinking in Catholic social teaching, the role of business and finance, healthcare and education, and the environment and globalisation.
Published: February 2024
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