The Edmund Lectures: A Different God? A Different Mountain?

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9th October 7:30pm
Event Finishes
9th October 9:30pm

About this event

This October and November will feature Big Issues: The Edmund Lectures 2024 – a series of lectures by internationally renowned experts on some of the big issues that challenge our lives as we continue to navigate the 21st Century.

“A Different God? A Different Mountain?” – Dr Ed Kessler MBE

Wednesday 9 October at 7.00pm

(Please note, this date was originally advertised as 2 October and was incorrect)

Dr Edward Kessler MBE is the founder and President of the Woolf Institute and a leading thinker in Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations. He is also Chair of the Commission on the Integration of Refugees and Fellow of St Edmunds College, Cambridge. In this talk, he will address the question: In an increasingly polarised and dangerous world, what’s the point of interfaith dialogue?

Ed will explore the tensions, positive as well as negative, between religion and civil society, both in the UK and around the world. He calls for genuine dialogue at a time of increasing tensions between and within faith communities in the wake of the Israel and Gaza conflict, argues that diplomats and policymakers need to be better trained in religion and belief, and emphasises the need to rediscover common ground in light of growing polarisation and the rise of sectarian voting trends in the UK and elsewhere in Europe after the recent elections.

Free to attend, but please book.

Dr Ed Kessler regularly appears in the media commenting on religion and belief issues of our day. He founded the Woolf Institute in 1998 and was elected Fellow of St Edmund’s College in 2002; in 2007, He was Convenor and Vice-Chair of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life (2013-15), which published a major policy report entitled, “Living with Difference” and Principal Investigator of the Woolf Institute study of diversity in England and Wales which published a major policy report entitled, “How We Get Along” (2019).

Dr Kessler was described by The Times Higher Education Supplement (London) as ‘probably the most prolific interfaith figure in British academia’ and in 2011 was awarded an MBE for services to interfaith relations. He has written or edited 12 books, including An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge, 2010), Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Encounter (SCM, 2013) and Jesus (The History Press, 2016). His Documentary History of Jewish-Christian Relations is being published by Cambridge in 2024. Also In 2024, he was awarded the Seelisberg Prize for his contribution to fostering better relations between Jews and Christians.

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