Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World

Professor Goddard was an undergraduate in Oxford, where he studied Islamic History under Albert Hourani, and then took his doctorate from the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in Birmingham, where his supervisor was David Kerr. He has worked and studied in the Middle East, in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, and has also undertaken a number of research visits to other regions of the Islamic World, including Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Central Asia.

Prior to moving to Edinburgh he worked in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies in the University of Nottingham, where he served as Professor of Christian-Muslim Relations from 2004. He is the author of Christians and Muslims: From Double Standards to Mutual Understanding (London: Curzon, 1995), Muslim Perceptions of Christianity (London: Grey Seal, 1996), and A History of Christian-Muslim Relations (Edinburgh University Press and Chicago: New Amsterdam, 2000), as well as many articles on different aspects of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations.

Supervision

Professor Goddard is particularly interested in supervising postgraduate research on Christian-Muslim relations.

Publications

Books

Christians and Muslims: from double standards to mutual understanding, Curzon Press, London, 1995, reprinted 1998.  (Indonesian translation, Menepis standar ganda: membangun saling pengertian Muslim-Kristen, Qalam Press, Yogyakarta, 2000).

Muslim perceptions of Christianity, Grey Seal, London, 1996.

A History of Christian-Muslim Relations, Edinburgh University Press and New Amsterdam Books, Chicago, 2000. (A volume of the Islamic Surveys series.)  (Polish translation, Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warsaw, 2009; Indonesian translation in process, to be published by Serambi, Jakarta).

 

Journal Articles

“Each Other’s Scripture” in Newsletter of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian‑Muslim relations, Selly Oak, Birmingham, No. 5 (May 1981), pp 16‑24.

“The Muslim critique of the West” in Anvil, 4(2) 1987, pp 113‑126.

“Faith and territory ‑ reflections on a visit to Turkey and a visit to Spain” in Discernment, 2(2) 1987, pp 2‑12.

“Contemporary Egyptian Muslim views of Christianity” in Renaissance and Modern Studies, 31 (1987), pp 74‑86.

“Works about Christianity by Egyptian Muslim authors, 1940-1980” in Muslim World, 80 (1990), pp 251-277.

“Some reflections on Christian and Islamic political thought” in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 1 (1990), pp 25-43.

“Spheres united under God - religion and the state in Islam” in Times Higher Education Supplement, 21.9.1990, p 15.

“Stranger than fiction? - the affair of ‘The Satanic Verses’” in Scottish Journal of Religious Studies, 12 (1991), pp 88-106.

“The Gulf Crisis - Past, Present and Future” in Southwell and Oxford Papers on Contemporary Society, Summer 1991, pp HG 1-14.

“Islam - towards a Christian assessment”, Latimer Studies, No 39, Latimer House, Oxford, 1992.

“Europe and Islam”, Studies in European Culture and Society, Paper No 8, European Research Centre, Loughborough University, 1992.

“The persistence of medieval themes in modern Christian-Muslim discussion in Egypt” in S.K. Samir and J.S. Nielsen (eds) Christian Arabic apologetics during the Abbasid period, Leiden, Brill, 1994, pp 225-237.

“The salvific value of other faiths, with special reference to Islam” Centre for the study of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations papers: Christian-Muslim reflections, No 2, 1994, pp 1-15.

“Modern Pakistani and Indian Muslim perceptions of Christianity” in Islam and Christian-Muslim relations, 5 (1994), pp 165-188.

“Islamic ethics in a multi-cultural society” in A. Jones (ed) University lectures in Islamic studies, 1 (1997), pp 49-66.

“Some recent studies of Jewish-Muslim Relations” in Journal of Progressive Judaism, 12 (1999), pp 5-28.

“Christian-Muslim Relations: a look backwards and a look forwards” in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 11 (2000), pp 195-212.

“Islam and democracy” in The Political Quarterly, 73 (2002), pp. 3-9.  (Indonesian translation in process, to be published in J.Simons and N. Soeseno (eds.) Justice, Democracy and Ethnicity, Mizan Press, Bandung).

 

Book Chapters

‘“Christianity from the Muslim perspective: varieties and changes” in J. Waardenburg (ed.) Islam and Christianity: mutual perceptions since the mid-20th century, Peeters, Leuven, 1998, pp  213-255.

“Christian-Muslim Relations in Nigeria and Malaysia” in L. Ridgeon (ed.) Islamic perceptions of Christianity, Curzon Press, 2001, pp 231-247.

“Is Islam a ‘fundamentalist’ religion?” in M.Percy and I. Jones (eds.), Fundamentalism, Church and Society, SPCK, 2002, pp. 145-159.

“The significance of The Call of the Minaret for Christian thinking about Islam” in D. Thomas and C. Amos (eds.), A Faithful Presence: Essays for Kenneth Cragg, Melisende, 2003, pp. 78-94.

“Islam” in H.K. Bond, S.D. Kunin and F.A. Murphy (eds.), A Companion to Religious Studies and Theology, Edinburgh University Press, 2003, pp. 185-221.

“Jesus in Islam” for L. Houlden (ed.), Jesus in History, Culture and Thought: an Encyclopaedia, ABC-CLIO Publishers, 2003, Vol. I, pp. 412-418.

“Islamic thought in the twentieth century on Christians and Christianity” in S. Taji-Farouki and B.M. Nafi (eds.), Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century, I.B. Tauris, 2004, pp. 296-317.

“The crisis of representation in Islamic Studies” in C. Karner and J. Crossley (eds.), Writing History, Constructing Religion, Ashgate, 2005, pp. 85-106.

“The six dimensions of Christian-Muslim Relations” in A.T. Wasim, A.R. Masud, E. Franke and M. Pye, (eds.), Religious Harmony: Problems, Practice and Education,  Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, pp. 99-109, and Yogyakarta: Oasis, 2006, pp. 83-93.     

 “Christian-Muslim Relations: examples of conflict and collaboration” in A. Baharuddin (ed.), The Dialogue of Civilizations and the Construction of Peace, Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 2008, pp. 173-194.

“Recent developments in Christian-Muslim Relations” in S. Goodwin (ed.), World Christianity in Muslim Encounter: Essays in Honour of David A. Kerr, Continuum, 2009, Vol. 2, pp. 96-114.

 

Other

Article “Baptism” in J.D. McAuliffe (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, Vol. 1, Brill, Leiden, 2001, pp. 200-201.

Guest Editor for special thematic issue of The International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 3:2 (2003) on Christian-Muslim Relations; includes Guest Editorial: “Christian-Muslim Relations – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, pp. 1-14; “Challenges and Developments: Christian-Muslim Relations in the Middle East”, pp. 15-35; and Postscript, pp. 101-104.

“Islamic theologians and thinkers” (34 articles) for I.R. Netton (ed.), Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion, Routledge, 2008.

“Jesus” in J.L. Esposito (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic world, (printed and online).

 

In Press

“A biographical approach to radicalisation: Ziauddin Sardar’s Desperately Seeking Paradise’ and Ed Husain’s The Islamist”, for G.Joffé (ed.), Islamic Radicalisation in Europe and the Middle East, to be published by I.B. Tauris, late 2010.

“Jesus”, “Freedom, Religious”, and “Medieval Christian Martyrs” for M. Forward, R. Omar, S, Alexander, and M. Hermansen (eds.), Dictionary of Christian-Muslim Relations, Cambridge University Press, late 2010.