Program Description

The ISRME was established by Christians and one of our goals is to help Christians to understand Islam more clearly and to communicate more effectively with Muslim friends. We also want to help Muslims to better understand Christianity and Christians. This is a huge challenge! Mutual misperception has increased rather than decreased in recent decades. Many Christians are impacted by misleading and harmful caricatures of Muslims and Islam that raise barriers to thoughtful engagement; many Muslims are similarly burdened with centuries old misconceptions about Christians and Christianity. 

For its first ten years the Institute has focused on research and on bringing Muslim and Christian scholars together. At the present time we see an opportunity to make the expertise of a world-wide network of outstanding scholars available to students anywhere in the world.

We need your help!

We would value your input as we finalize the details of our course offerings. Your ideas will help us to shape our programs and to make our courses more practical and relevant. You can help us in two ways. You can meet with us in one of several focus group sessions to hear more about our plans and give input, or you can fill out a survey form – or you can do both. After reading the description below, RSVP to this invitation by completing the form.

What courses will be offered? At what level?

You can get an idea of the range of courses we are planning by browsing our course descriptions below. We are eager to know which of these seem most interesting and relevant to you. Most courses will be taught at a Master’s level. We may be able to admit qualified undergraduates to some courses.

We are especially excited about our “Foundations for Christian-Muslim Engagement” course, and would love your feedback to fine-tune it. The course will explore a wide range of different ways of understanding the complex relationship of Christianity and Islam. It will be taught by experts in many different fields, including Qur’anic and Biblical studies, comparative theology, history, sociology, anthropology, and women’s studies so that students are exposed to many different tools and ideas for how to deepen mutual understanding and communication between Christians and Muslims.

How will courses be delivered?

Our faculty are scattered all over the world, and so too are our likely students. For this reason all of our courses will be online. Some will be synchronous, using zoom, others will be asynchronous. We may introduce in-person, context-specific intensive courses in the future, depending on interest.

Who will teach these courses?

We have a network of top-notch faculty who live and work around the world. All have doctorates in fields related to Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Many of our instructors are Christian by faith, but we will also invite Muslim colleagues to teach courses with us. In addition to academic expertise, all of our instructors have long experience putting into practice what they teach and deep knowledge of particular contexts of Muslim-Christian interaction, including Europe, North America, Egypt, North Africa, Turkey, and South Asia.

Can students receive university credit?

Yes. Courses will be available for academic credit, and also open to auditors.

Will ISRME courses count toward a degree?

Maybe. Initially we will be offering a certificate, but we are exploring options for creating a full MA program in Christian-Muslim Studies.

Are these courses exclusively for Christians?

No. We will welcome Muslim students, or students of any faith. We want Christian students to learn to listen to Muslim classmates, and we want our Muslim students to learn from Christians. We think studying together will make the learning experience far richer for both.

For more detail go to Academic Programs and our Course Catalogue on our main Courses page.