Kalam Research and Media (KRM) marked the 20th anniversary of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme (CIP) of the University of Cambridge, by publishing the Muscat Manifesto by Professor David Ford and Ecologies of Peace by Dr Aref Ali Nayed into one volume titled Ecologies of Wisdom. This volume is published in cooperation with the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme and the Rose Castle Foundation.
Professor David Ford’s Muscat Manifesto was the first monograph to be published by Kalam Research and Media (KRM) when it was established in 2009. Professor Ford was the then Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme. This was followed in 2010 by the publication of Growing Ecologies of Peace, Compassion and Blessing by Dr Aref Ali Nayed, the Founder and Chairman of KRM, as a theological response to Ford’s Muscat Manifesto.
Nayed is a Senior Advisor to CIP, and the close collaboration between KRM and CIP has been important in efforts to promote inter-faith initiatives in the Muslim world.
In order to coincide with the 20th anniversary event of CIP on 5th-6th September 2022, KRM published the two seminal monographs by Ford and Nayed—the Muscat Manifesto and Ecologies of Peace—as a single volume titled Ecologies of Wisdom. This single edition contains a new Foreword by Professor Esra Özyürek, the Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths and Shared Values and CIP’s Academic Director, where she highlights the history of CIP and the importance of the network of contributing partners, and the exciting new fields of research she hopes to bring to inter-faith studies at the Programme.
The volume also includes photos of Ford’s keynote speech in Muscat, and Nayed’s keynote speech in Cambridge, as a visual record of the importance of both theological ideas to the development of KRM and CIP.
The commemorative event by CIP on 5th-6th September 2022 at the Faculty of Divinity in Cambridge, brought together religious leaders and scholars associated with the work of CIP over the years. The event was led by Professor Esra Özyürek (the Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths and Shared Values and CIP’s Academic Director), and the various sessions included presentations by Professor David Ford (Founding Director of CIP), Dr Tim Jenkins (Cambridge), Dr Michal Kravel-Tovi (Tel Aviv), Dr Giles Waller (Cambridge), Rev Dr Catriona Laing (Anglican Chaplain in Leuven, Belgium and a former CIP Project Manager), Miriam Lorie (former CIP Public Education Manager and rabbi-in-training), Nadiya Takolia (Scriptural Reasoning Coordinator, Rose Castle Foundation), Dr Iona Hine (CIP Programme Manager), Dr Anastasia Badder (CIP), Professor Ben Quash (King’s College London) Dr Ankur Barua (Cambridge, Acting Director of CIP in 2017–2018), Dr Daniel Weiss (Coexist-Polonsky Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Chair of the CIP Management Committee), Dr Safet HadziMuhamedovic (CIP Associate) and Dr Simone Kotva (Cambridge).
Sohail Nakhooda, the Executive Director of Kalam Research and Media (KRM) also attended the event in Cambridge.
The commemorative volume, Ecologies of Wisdom: Christian and Muslim Horizons, can be downloaded for free here.