Jean-Jacques Pérennès

Full professor

Jean-Jacques Pérennès is a Dominican friar and former director of the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem (2015-2023). With over three decades of experience in the Arab world, he has taught at the University of Algiers and the Institut d’Études Politiques de Lyon. He also served as the director of the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies in Cairo, Egypt, for 15 years. His areas of expertise encompass interreligious dialogue, the situation of Eastern Christians, and the history of the Dominican presence in the Muslim world. He held the positions of socius to the Master of the Order for Apostolic Life from 1992 to 1998 and then as the provincial vicar of the Arab world for eight years. Jean-Jacques Pérennès has authored several biographies on Dominican friars in Muslim lands, notably on Pierre Claverie, Georges Anawati, Antonin Jaussen, Serge de Beaurecueil, and Roland de Vaux. He has also published “L’Orient des Prêcheurs,” a history of the Dominican Order in the Muslim world. His other publications include collective works on interreligious dialogue, Islamic culture, and Assyriology, as well as a monograph commemorating the centenary of the École Biblique et Archéologique de Jérusalem. Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, and the Gulf countries are among the regions he is particularly familiar with.

Resources related toMuslim-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...

Le pape Léon XIV présente l'encyclique Magnifica Humanitas, Salle du Synode, Vatican, 25 mai 2026

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...