Florence Javel
Born in 1968 in France, Florence Javel holds a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Lyon (UCLy), where in April 2025 she defended a thesis on the Islamologist Maurice Borrmans (1925-2017), supervised by Michel Younès.
A specialist in Christian-Muslim dialogue, she has devoted her research to the figure of Maurice Borrmans, White Father and Islamologist, and to the place of Islamic studies in the encounter between Christians and Muslims. Her work combines history and theology to offer a rereading of sixty years of Christian-Muslim relations, from the Second Vatican Council to the present day.
She has published Maurice Borrmans et la crise du dialogue islamo-chrétien (Éditions du Cerf, 2026). She has also written a study on the authority of mystics in M. Younès and A. Mostfa (eds.), L’autorité en islam (Peuple Libre, 2023), and an essay comparing Maurice Borrmans and Mohamed Talbi in Islamochristiana 49 (2024).
Holding a bachelor’s degree in history (Paul-Valéry University, 1991) and a master’s in theology (Faculty of Theology of Lyon, 2016), she has been a tutor at Théo en Ligne (UCLy) for Michel Younès’s Christology course since 2021.
Resources of this researcher
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publication
Maurice Borrmans and the Crisis of Christian-Muslim Dialogue. Islamic studies in Question?
- Florence Javel
In 2025-2026, we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and of the declaration Nostra aetate (28 October 1965). One century earlier, in October 1925, Maurice Borrmans was born ...
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videos
Maurice Borrmans (1925-2017), an Islamologist Defending Christian-Muslim Dialogue
- Florence Javel
On 19 February 2026, in the Maurice Borrmans Library of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, Florence Javel, who holds a PhD in theology from the Catholic Univer...
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publication
Islamochristiana Journal 49 (2024): “Maurice Borrmans and Mohamed Talbi: From Friendship to Rupture”
- David Marshall
- Diego Sarrió Cucarella
- Rémi Caucanas
- Michel Younès
- Geneviève Gobillot
- Florence Javel
- Yosra Garmi
- Tobias Specker
The title of this issue, “Maurice Borrmans and Mohamed Talbi: From Friendship to Rupture,” was suggested to us by a collection of articles that highlight different aspects of the relati...
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videos
The authority of mystics: reality or overdetermination of Islamic scholars? Through the eyes of Maurice Borrmans
- Florence Javel
Conference « Religious Authority in Islam », organised by the Centre for the Study of Cultures and Religions and the Research Unit of the Catholic University of Lyon (UCLy), on 18 and 19 November 2...
Resources related to
Muslim-Christian Dialogue
article
Kenneth Cragg and the Event of the Qur’an
- Timo Güzelmansur
Article by Timo Güzelmansur published under the title Kenneth Cragg und das Ereignis des Koran on the theological portal feinschwarz.net (12 June 2026, open access). Timo Güzelmansur presents the A...
article
Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and the Pluriel working group on AI-assisted interreligious dialogue
- Wael Saleh
Text by Wael Saleh, researcher at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and member of the Pluriel coordination committee. The simultaneous appearance of Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Human...
publication
The Recognition of a Hummingbird. Essays on Interreligious Dialogue and Missionary Work (2007-2025)
- Rémi Caucanas
Published in May 2026 by PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome), this collection brings together the essays of Rémi Caucanas on interreligious dialogue and missionary wor...
videos
From Lavigerie to PISAI: The Institutional History of the Missionaries of Africa’s Engagement with Islam
Delivered on 21 May 2026 at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, this lecture opens the series of conferences marking the institute's centenary (1926-2026). Fr. ...
videos
Interreligious Dialogue and Ethnic Nationalisms in the Balkans
At the invitation of PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome) and Georgetown University, Ahmet Alibašić, professor of Islamic civilization at the Faculty of Islamic Studies...
publication
For a Christian Theology of Religions
- Michel Younès
Faced with contemporary religious diversity, how can Christian theology make sense of the place that other religions occupy in God’s design? Michel Younès examines the three traditional ̶...
publication
Intercultural Theology
- Jean Patrick Nkolo Fanga
Because every theology is culturally situated, Christian theology is inevitably multicultural. Yet one step remains to be taken: to become intercultural. Crossing languages, contexts, origins, ages...
article
Bells and Muezzin in Harmony: Dialogue with Islam as a Spiritual Responsibility
- Timo Güzelmansur
Article by Timo Güzelmansur published under the title Glocken und Muezzin im Einklang. Der Dialog mit dem Islam als geistliche Verantwortung in Herder Korrespondenz (special issue devoted to Pope L...