What is God to a Jewish philosopher, a Muslim philosopher, and a Christian philosopher?

Making room for dialogue not despite our disagreements but thanks to our disagreements.

Meetings between people of different faiths are usually organized around the topics they agree upon. Abrahamic religions have common roots, common texts, common stories. However, when too much effort is put into finding agreement, the tendency may be to put aside one's religion, tradition, culture. We should engage into dialogue, we say, despite the differences. What if we did not put our own religions aside? What if, by remaining faithful to our own religious traditions, we find room for a dialogue thanks to our differences. Only in this way will we begin to understand each other’s point of view. Only in this way will we start to know each other for who we really are.

At the 5th digital open day of the Online’s Master in Philosophy, Theology, and Religions, Tyron Goldschmidt (Jewish philosophy), Winfried Löffler (Christian philosophy), and Gary Carl Muhammad Legenhausen (Islamic philosophy) will talk about the core of all disagreements: God. What is God to a Jewish philosopher, a Muslim philosopher, and a Christian philosopher?

Join us on Zoom at our fifth digital open day on June 22 at 6 pm C.E.T.

Tyron Goldschmidt (Rochester University) teaches Foundational Concepts and History of Judaism (together with Simon Erlanger) and Jewish Contemporary Philosophy at the Online Master’s in Philosophy, Theology and Religions. Among his many publications in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, early modern philosophy, ethics, one should recall his edited volume (with Sara Bernstein) on Non-Being: New Essays on the Metaphysics of Nonexistence (2021 OUP) and Ontological Arguments (CUP 2020).

Winfried Löffler is Professor at the Institute for Christian Philosophy at the University of Innsbruck. In our master’s he teaches Christian Contemporary Philosophy. A renowned expert in philosophy of religion, Prof. Löffer has published in many fields ranging over many topics such as disagreement, belief, the doctrine of God. His publications include an introduction to the philosophy of religion (Einführung in die Religionsphilosophie, WBG 2019 now at its third edition) and his edited volume (with Christoph Jäger) Epistemology: Contexts, Values, Disagreement (Ontos 2012).

Gary Carl Muhammad Legenhausen is professor of philosophy at the university of Qom and other educational institutions in Iran. In our master's he teaches Islamic Contemporary Philosophy. In addition to this topic, he has published extensively on various aspects of philosophy in the Islamic world over the last four decades from ethics and moral philosophy through law and epistemology to theology and metaphysics. Christian-Islamic dialogue is also one of his main research and intellectual interests on which, among other things, he has edited (with Christian Kanzian) Substance and Attribute. Western and Islamic Traditions in Dialogue (Ontos 2013).