The Rev. Dr. Mark Swanson, professor of Christian-Muslim studies and Interfaith Relations at The Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, gave the keynote address during the annual Witt Series-sponsored Kenneth H. Sauer Symposium, Oct. 29, in Weaver Chapel. Swanson discussed “A Lutheran Perspective of Islam.”

For 14 years, Swanson lived in Cairo, Egypt, where he taught Greek, New Testament exegesis and Arabic Christian theology at the Evangelical Theological Seminary beginning in 1984. He returned to the United States in 1998 to take a faculty position at the Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and since then has presented to more than 100 church groups on the topics of Islam and Christian- Muslim relations.

“He is an outstanding teacher as well as a globally recognized scholar who has developed keen insights into the Lutheran tradition as it relates to interfaith relations and to Christian-Muslim relations in particular,” said Kathleen D. Billman, dean of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.