Rita George-Tvrtkovic, Shannon Lecture

"The Virgin Mary: Bridge or Barrier between Catholics and Muslims" by Rita George-Tvrtkovic
Presented by The William H. Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies

“Lasting relationships are essential to the interfaith movement, for they can often keep diverse religious communities talking when nothing else will.”

In a world that seems to believe that an unassailable barrier exists between Islam and Christianity, the work of Rita George-Tvrtkovic, Ph.D., holds a special importance. A specialist in Christian-Muslim relations, medieval and contemporary, she engages ethnography with textual study of the Bible and Qur’an to explore each tradition’s understanding of the other. Her efforts embrace persons much beloved within each tradition, Jesus/Isa and Mary/Maryam, to help us grasp, and then ponder, the significance each tradition’s understandings holds for the other.

George-Tvrtkovic teaches in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at Benedictine University in Illinois. Her books include A Christian Pilgrim in Medieval Iraq: Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Encounter with Islam (2012) and Christians, Muslims, and Mary: A History (2018), as well as a co-edited volume, Nicholas of Cusa and Islam: Polemic and Dialogue in the Late Middle Ages (2014). She is former associate director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and currently serves on the U.S. Bishops’ National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue.

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