Berkley Center

Gavin D’Costa is professor of Catholic theology at the University of Bristol, where he has taught since 1993. He advises the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and in 1998 was visiting professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. D'Costa's publications include Vatican II: Catholic Doctrines on Jews and Muslims (2014), Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions (2009), The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity (2000), and Theology and Religious Pluralism (1986). Born in Kenya, he came to England in 1968 and completed a first degree in English and theology at Birmingham University. He studied at the University of Cambridge for his doctorate on John Hick’s theology of religions and then taught in London.

Revd. Lucy Gardner is a tutor in Christian doctrine at St. Stephen's House, University of Oxford, where she has taught since 1993. She was ordained priest in the Church of England in June 2013, following her ordination as deacon in 2012. She studied theology at St John’s College, Oxford, and Bonn University, and her research interests include Schleiermacher, Balthasar, and feminist theology.

Damian Howard, S.J., is an English Jesuit priest and provincial superior of the Jesuit British Province. Howard previously was a lecturer at Heythrop College and vice-director of the Bellarmine Institute. His research interests include interreligious relations, particularly between Christians and Muslims. His publications include Ignatius of Loyola: Apostle to the Muslims (2016) and Being Human in Islam: The Impact of the Evolutionary Worldview (2011). He read Islamic studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London and holds a doctorate in contemporary Islamic thought from the University of Birmingham.

The Right Reverend Dr. Michael Ipgrave is the bishop of Lichfield in the Church of England. Ipgrave has lectured and written extensively about interfaith relations, Christian-Muslim dialogue, and religion and human rights. He is a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission for Dialogue with the Chief Rabbinates of Israel. He previously served as the bishop of Woolwich and archdeacon of Southwark. He was Inter Faith Relations Adviser to the Archbishop's Council of the Church of England and executive secretary of the ecumenical Churches' Commission for Inter Faith Relations from 1999 to 2004. Ipgrave is the author of Trinity and Inter Faith Dialogue (2003) and has edited several volumes recording Building Bridges seminars. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Durham.

Catriona Laing is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University and was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 2012. She has been Project Manager of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, which is developing academic research projects and public education programmes in Jewish, Christian and Islamic studies. Laing has also been involved in the Muslim-Christian dialogue focused on A Common Word Between Us and You.

Rev. Daniel Madigan, S.J., an Australian Jesuit priest, is Rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne, and Chair of The Loyola Institute at Australian Catholic University. From 2008 to 2021 he was the Jeanette W. and Otto J. Ruesch Family Associate Professor in Georgetown University’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies; he continues to be a faculty fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and associate professor emeritus at Georgetown. He has been involved with the annual Building Bridges Seminar since 2003 and in 2012 was appointed chair. His interests include Qur’anic studies, interreligious dialogue, and comparative theology, with a special focus on Muslim-Christian relations. Madigan previously taught in Rome (2000-2007), where he was the founder and director of the Pontifical Gregorian University's Institute for the Study of Religions and Cultures. He is the author of The Qur’an’s Self-Image: Writing and Authority in Islam’s Scripture (2001) and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an (2022). Madigan holds a B.A. from Monash University, B.D. from Melbourne College of Divinity, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Rev. Dr. David Marshall is the academic director of the Building Bridges Seminar for theological dialogue between Muslim and Christian scholars, which he helped launch in 2002 and in which he has been involved ever since. Since 2012, Building Bridges has been directed from Georgetown University, where Marshall is a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. He has served in a variety of contexts, including as chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2000 to 2005, where he had responsibility for interfaith relations. Much of Marshall’s work has been in the field of theological education. He has taught at St. Paul’s University (Limuru, Kenya), Edinburgh University, Duke Divinity School, Georgetown University, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Rome), and Bern University. From 2018 to 2021, he served as program executive in interreligious dialogue and co-operation at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, with particular responsibility for Christian-Jewish and Christian-Muslim relations. Marshall studied theology at Oxford University and holds a doctorate in Islamic studies from Birmingham University.

Anthony O’Mahony is a lecturer in Theology and the History of Christianity at Heythrop College at the University of London. O’Mahony is among the world’s leading scholars of Middle Eastern Christianity. He was founding director of Heythrop's Centre for Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue and now serves as director of Heythrop's Centre for Eastern Christianity. His numerous publications include Christianity in the Middle East: Studies in Modern History, Politics and Theology (2008) and the co-edited volumes Eastern Christianity in the Modern Middle East (2009), Christianity and Jerusalem: Studies in Theology and Politics in the Modern Holy Land (2010), and The Catholic Church in the Contemporary Middle East (Melisende, 2010). O'Mahony was also a part of the Christianity and Freedom Project headed by the Berkley Center's Religious Freedom Project.