About Us

The Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme is dedicated to learning about, learning from, and learning between religions as they interact within a secular and religious world.

What does it mean to be religious in the 21st century? How should people from different religious traditions engage with one another, and with the wider religious and secular world? How should the importance of those traditions, and their power for good and ill, be acknowledged intelligently within secular institutions? What can we learn from history about how religions have interacted and shaped one another, and together shaped the public sphere? What are the resources within different religions for promoting peace and contributing to human flourishing? 

In our world, it is ever more important to create spaces in which people can study and explore these questions, and for creative dissemination of discoveries throughout the public sphere.

The Cambridge Inter-faith Programme:

• Pursues academic research into Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and their interactions with each other and with the wider secular and religious world, historically and today;
• Provides and facilitates high-quality education in this area for a wide variety of audiences at every level;
• Shapes debate about and between the religions nationally and internationally.

The Cambridge Inter-faith Programme was born in 2002 with the aim of promoting high-quality engagement between Jews, Christians and Muslims, and deeper understanding of the role that Judaism, Christianity and Islam can play in a complexly religious and secular world. Since the outset, it has worked in partnership with the Coexist Foundation to provide high quality education about religions to the widest possible public audience. 

As part of the University of Cambridge, CIP aims to transform both the academic environment and public consciousness, shaping the way that religion is understood and related to today.