A talk with Mona Siddiqui and Joshua Ralston given on Monday 6 November 2017, as part of the St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn Lecture Series – Reformation. The talk is moderated by Revd Dr Sam Wells.
About the series
On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther pinned 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, protesting against the practice of indulgences and touching on questions of grace, repentance and forgiveness. The Reformation was a culmination of events and circumstances that led to a seismic shift in the religious framework of Britain. It established the image of an island nation, separate and supreme, still resonant today. It triggered a religious and political redistribution of power. It led to renewal and reform but also deep division, persecution and violence. And out of this turmoil were born the concepts of state and church as we know them today.
The 500th Anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation provides the opportunity to explore and reflect upon issues of church, state, and religious and cultural diversity that are still at the centre of our national life: the conflicts that divide, and the convictions which diverse parts of the Christian church hold sacred. How are we called to be reformed by the Gospel? How do we build the unity Christ called for with those whose convictions are very different from our own? In this autumn lecture series we will be exploring some of those hopes and controversies.
About the speakers
Mona Siddiqui OBE is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. She is Assistant Principal for Religion and Society and Dean International for the Middle East. Her most recent monographs include Christians, Muslims and Jesus and Hospitality and Islam, Welcoming in God’s Name. She is a regular broadcaster commentator and writer and chairs the BBC’s Scottish Religious Advisory Committee. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Arts; she has received five honorary doctorates and is among Debrett’s 500 most influential people in the UK.
Dr Joshua Ralston is Lecturer in Muslim-Christian Relations at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, having previously been on the faculty of Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He has been a visiting lecturer in Christian-Muslim Relations in both Aba, Nigeria and Cairo, Egypt, and regularly lectures in both academic and public forums. He co-edited The Church in an Age of Migration: A Moving Body, and his monograph, Law and the Rule of God: Shari’a in Christian-Muslim Debate, will be out early next year.
