Submitted by Administrator on Tue, 19/01/2016 - 15:02
"Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs" is one of the British Museum's first exhibitions to explore inter-faith relations. One of the exhibition's Curators, Dr Elisabeth R. O'Connell, will present an evening of discussion in Cambridge on Monday 1 February.
"Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs" is one of the British Museum's first exhibitions to explore inter-faith relations. It takes us beyond the pyramids and Pharaohs to the Egypt of the first millennium CE, when Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities lived together in the country.
The objects these diverse people left behind, including sacred texts, clothing, jewellery and household items, tell complex stories of the way these communities related to and influenced one another and the landscape of Egypt itself.
In November, the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme, based in the Faculty of Divinity, worked with the Curators at the British Museum to provide two Scriptural Reasoning workshops; a form of inter-faith dialogue centred on textual understanding and interpretation. Visitors from a variety of faiths and none had the chance to engage with the lived realities behind the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in the company of members of each religion.
Now one of the exhibition's Curators, Dr Elisabeth R. O'Connell, will present an evening of discussion in Cambridge on Monday 1 February.
Dr O'Connell will be joined by five experts from the University of Cambridge: Dr James Aitken, Dr Ben Outhwaite, Dr Simon Gathercole, Professor Garth Fowden and Professor Janet Soskice.
The event is free and open to all, and will be followed by refreshments and a chance to meet and speak to the Curator and the panel.
Giles Waller, Cambridge Inter-faith Programme Research Associate and organiser of the event, said:
"We are delighted that the Curator if this timely and critically-acclaimed exhibition will be in discussion in Cambridge with some of the leading scholars of religion in first-millennium Egypt. What emerges from this exhibition is a society shaped by three different monotheistic traditions, in a comparatively peaceful co-existence. The exhibition offers both a fascinating peek into the lives of ordinary Egyptians over 1200 years, and poses searching questions for modern visitors".
For tickets to the evening with the Curator, please book online via EventBrite.
For more information, please see the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme.
The exhibition, "Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs" is open until 7 February at the British Museum. For more information, see the Museum's website.
For more information on the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme, or to sign up to hear about upcoming events including inter-faith dialogue sessions, please visit www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk.