Islamochristiana 40

Islamochristiana 40 (2014) has finally been published, with the Editor’s apologies for the unusual delay. One of the reasons for this delay was the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of PISAI’s presence in Rome (1964-2014): an international event involving prominent personalities and academic institutions in a reflection on the theme “Studying and understanding the religion of the other. Towards mutual recognition between religions and cultures in today’s world”.
Melange is the title of this issue of ISCH, collecting interesting articles received from the Editorial Board, which would not otherwise have been publishedin the usual monographic format.
After Pope Francis’ address concerning PISAI and the account of the Institute’s transfer from Tunisia to Rome by Fr. Maurice Borrmans, Ignazio De Francesco tackles thetopic of death by martyrdom from the Christian and the Muslim perspective in twonoteworthy historical works; Paul Lemarié writes on the Focolari Movement’s current experience in its relations with Muslims. A collection of articles focuses on the theme of research and education: Gabriel Said Reynolds analyses new trends in academic research into Islam and the Qur’an in North America; Archbishop Maroun Lahham and Martino Diez, in two separate articles, speak of the importance of education in Christian-Muslim dialogue; Alessandro Cancian compares the training given in the Shi‘ite Ḥawza ‘Ilmiyya and in Catholic seminaries. Concerning the Iranian Shi’ites, there is Clément Therme’s article which analyses the interreligious dialogue relations between Russia and Iran. The last two articles deal with local situations. Najib George Awad’s article considers whether it is possible to contemplate a “civil state” in the projects of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Finally, José Luis Sánchez Nogales and Gonzalo Villagrán Medina describe the current situation of Muslim integration in Spain. The wealth of information in Notes and documents describes meetings, opinions, difficulties and accords between Christians and Muslims in various parts of the world. The Book reviews highlight the growing interest in Islam and in Christian-Muslim relations around the world. In his address, Pope Francis told us: “I hope the PISAI community may never betray its primary purpose of listening and dialogue, founded on distinct identities, on the passionate, patient and vigorous search for truth and beauty”. Islamochristiana, in as much as it is able, seeks to follow this road.