In this episode Jonathan talks to Dr Mark Durie, author of The Qur'an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. They explore the theological relationship between Christianity (and Judaism) and Islam, with a particular focus on explaining the large presence of Biblical material in the Qur'an and whether this constitutes theological continuity or discontinuity. The pair also discuss the implication's of Mark's thesis that Islam constitutes a theological innovation rather than a continuous development from Christianity for inter-faith dialogue and pluralism in Western liberal democracies.

Dr Mark Durie is a Senior Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at the Melbourne School of Theology. He has earned two PhDs, in Linguistics and Islamic Theology, and has held visiting academic positions in linguistics at MIT, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and Stanford. In 1992, while head of the Department of Linguistics and Language Studies at Melbourne University, he became the youngest person elected to the Australian Academy of Humanities. Mark speaks and writes on relations between monotheistic faiths, Christian missions, and religious freedom. He is the author of The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion.

The Political Animals is hosted by Dr Jonathan Cole, an academic, writer, speaker and translator specialising in political theology: the intersetion of religion and politics. Jonathan was a senior terrorism analyst at Australian intelligence agency the Office of National Assessments where he worked on Islamist terrorism and the global jihadist movement. He is the author of Christian Political Theology in an Age of Discontent: Mediating Scripture, Doctrine, and Political Reality. You can follow Jonathan and the show on Twitter and Facebook.