Prof Michael Barnes SJ

Prof Michael Barnes SJ

Honorary Fellow

Michael Barnes is Professor of Interreligious Relations at the University of Roehampton. Having just published Waiting on Grace, a Theology of Dialogue (OUP, 2020) he is turning attention to what he hopes will be a focussed monograph bringing together two themes that have wandered all too vaguely through his thoughts for several years.  One is Christology – addressing the question of how in a pluralist world Christians (and others too) can address Jesus’s christological question. The other is the political arena and the wider public contexts in which interreligious relations have to be conducted.  At the moment he has a tentative title – Jesus the Other of God: a political christology of religions – and a few thoughts.  At the same time, and largely separate from this, he wants to give some attention to work he did many years ago on the textual tradition behind Buddhist Mindfulness.  He hopes this will not only keep his hand in with the more theological side of interreligious relations but also contribute to the current debate about a secularised mindfulness practice.