Shabbir Akhtar & Galatians
The focus of this event will be the late Shabbir Akhtar’s groundbreaking study The New Testament in Muslim Eyes: Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Routledge, Abingdon – New York, 2018). Akhtar’s work is the first ever substantial commentary on a letter of St Paul to be written by a Muslim scholar.
We plan to hold a webinar, open to all who register, in September 2026. The date is still to be set; if you register we will add you to the mailing list for this event and inform you when we have a firm date and time. The event will be organized by the Institute for the Study of Religion in the Middle East (ISRME) and co-sponsored by ISRME and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI).
We expect that the webinar will begin with two presentations on Akhtar’s book, one each by a Muslim and a Christian scholar. A panel of four other scholars, two Muslims and two Christians, will then offer responses. The event will conclude with a plenary Q & A session.
This event is planned as one part of an initiative by the journal Islamochristiana (ISCH) which has been published annually in Rome by PISAI since 1975. Volume 52 (2026), which is due to be published in April 2027, will include a selection of essays on the theme ‘Islam and St Paul’.
