Building Bridges Seminar

Najib George Awad, a theologian and poet originally from Syria, is professor of Christian theology and Eastern Christian thought at Hartford Seminary; he is also director of its Ph.D. program in Islamic studies and Christian-Muslim relations. His research interests include systematic theology, the doctrine of the Trinity, theology of religions, contextual theology, Arabic Christianity and Christian-Muslim relations, and Oriental/Arab Christianity, particularly the early Christian-Muslim kalam of the early Muslim (Umayyad and Abbasid) era. He publishes in both Arabic and English. His works in English include God without Face? On the Personal Individuation of the Holy Spirit (2011); And Freedom Became a Public-Square: Political, Sociological and Religious Overviews on the Arab Christians and the Arabic Spring (2012); Orthodoxy in Arabic Terms: A Study of Theodore Abū Qurrah’s Trinitarian and Christological Doctrines in an Islamic Context (2015); and Umayyad Christianity: John of Damascus as a Contextual Example of Identity Formation in Early Islam (2018). He earned his M.A. and D.Phil. in systematic theology from King’s College, University of London, and D.Th. (habilitation) in historical/Oriental theology from Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.