Support Efforts to Foster Student Interfaith Dialogue | Washington Theological Consortium

Join in a unique venture that engages religious leaders across the three Abrahamic faiths and brings them into dialogue through an intensive course offered at our member institution, Virginia Theological Seminary.

Dialogue of Abrahamic Faiths: Understanding and Partnership

This unique offering is an intensive, residential course that focuses on the academic study of sacred texts and practices in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for seminarians and religious education students from each of these traditions. The focus is on comparing and contrasting these great traditions toward greater understanding and areas of partnership. It also includes sessions about the shared challenges of being a faith leader, and includes visits to each other’s houses of worship.

The five nights and days of this in-person course allow students to build interfaith friendships that can last for many years and which will contribute to building greater interfaith understanding. Students can take the course for between 1.5 to 3 credits, with tuition paid to their school. Applications are made through the student’s home school Academic Dean to ensure suitability. Enrollment is limited to 24 students to ensure strong interaction with all participants. Since 2024, nearly 45 students have participated in the course and the number of seminaries, schools of religion, and graduate programs in ministry that have participated across all three faiths has grown from 8 to 12.

To make the course no-cost for seminarians and students, especially those of limited means, we invite your financial support to allow VTS to provide each participant with room and board and a travel stipend up to $500 to take this course in Arlington, Virginia. Donate here and specify your gift is for the Abrahamic Faiths course.

Course Details

Summary flyer

Student Testimonials Playlist

View testimonials from recent students in the playlist below. See also this page for a listing of all the videos.

Written Student Testimonials

Core Faculty

Dr. Sandra Collins is the Professor of Sacred Scripture and acting Academic Dean at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh. She has taught at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Carnegie Mellon University. She earned a PhD in Religious Studies, an MLS from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MA from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Dr. Collins has written numerous articles on Eastern Christianity, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the New Testament. She is deeply committed to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue for all religious leaders.

Dr. Gulsum Kuchuksari is a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies who teaches in the Department of Critical Race, Gender and Culture at American University. She teaches at theological schools throughout the US, including Virginia Theological Seminary and Wesley Theological Seminary. She earned her PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and an MA in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary. She has also served as a Muslim and interfaith chaplain at college campuses and hospitals.

Dr. Ori Z. Soltes is Professor of Jewish Studies at the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University. He is the former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. As co-founding Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project he spent 20 years investigating Nazi-plundered art. Dr. Soltes is author or editor of 28 books and scores of articles. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim art, The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; Christianity and Islam: Searching for Oneness, and Tradition and Transformation regarding Jewish art.