Pierre-Olivier Léchot
Born in 1978, Pierre-Olivier Léchot has been professor of the history of Christianity in the modern period at the Protestant Faculty of Theology in Paris since 2012.
He specialises in the evolution of Protestant theology between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. His main research areas are natural theology and ethics in Reformed thought (16th-18th centuries), the representation of Islam in Protestant thought (16th-18th centuries), and cultural transfers and the use of non-Christian sources among seventeenth-century Protestant exegetes, in particular Samuel Bochart (1599-1667) and Louis Cappel (1585-1658).
In the ecumenical field, he teaches at the Higher Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Paris, part of the Catholic Institute of Paris. He is an associate member of the Laboratory for the Study of Monotheisms, in the team on religious institutions and doctrines of medieval and modern Europe and the Mediterranean, at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris.
In 2018, he edited an Introduction à l’histoire de la théologie (Labor et Fides).
Resources of this researcher
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publication
Luther and Mohammed. Western European Protestantism and Islam (16th-18th centuries)
- Pierre-Olivier Léchot
Publisher’s presentation Autumn 1611: while visiting France, a young Dutch Protestant student refines his knowledge of Arabic with a Muslim of Castilian origin he met in the Paris region. Tho...
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videos
Protestantism and Islam
- Pierre-Olivier Léchot
How did Martin Luther and John Calvin view Islam? How have Protestant theologians contributed to research on Islam? Pierre-Olivier Léchot, professor of modern history at the Protestant Institute of...
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Identities
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Wael Saleh: “Recognising Without Confining, to Better ‘De-other’ the Public Debate”
- Wael Saleh
In an op-ed published on 20 July 2026 by Le Devoir, Wael Saleh, a member of the scientific committee of Pluriel, puts forward a new concept for contemporary democratic debate: "de-othering" (in Fre...
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...
videos
Highlighting an Islamic heritage in constant evolution: literary ethics and aesthetics in Najib Redouane’s “Under the Sky of Oran”
Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme "Ethics and Aesthetics in Is...
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Sayyid Qutb. Architect of Radical Islamism
- Mounia Ait Kabboura
The thought of Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) has profoundly shaped a wide range of religio-political movements, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Salafi-jihadists, radicalizing political Islam and inspiring...
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Dialogue for a More Livable World: Toward an Ethics of Encounter
- Mohamed-Ali Mostfa
How can we live in a climate of mistrust, trapped in identity-based withdrawal, and paralyzed by an uncertain future? On what basis can we open new paths to ease suffering—perhaps even reenchant ou...
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Inaugural Lecture for the Chair in Mediterranean Studies, Religions and Societies
- Dominique Avon
Lecture given by Professor Dominique Avon on October 13, 2025, at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI).
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Anti-Muslim Racism in Switzerland: A Baseline Study
- Noemi Trucco
- Amir Dziri
- Hansjörg Schmid
Commissioned by the Swiss Confederation’s Service for Combating Racism (SLR), this study (SZIG/CSIS-Studies 12, 2025) is the first comprehensive baseline survey of anti-Muslim racism in Switz...
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Islam in Europe or European Islam?
In this conference given on January 30, 2025, at PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies) in Rome, political scientist Olivier Roy offers an in-depth analysis of the Muslim prese...