Background

• B.A. (Capitaol University)
• M.Div. (Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary)
• Ph.D. (University of Birmingham, England)

Areas of Study

• Christian-Muslim relationships
• History of Christianity in the Middle East
• American Christian perspectives on religion and society in the Middle East
• 19th and 20th Protestant missionary thought on Islam

The Rev. Dr. David D. Grafton is the newly appointed Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations on the faculty of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary (http://www.hartsem.edu/macdonald-center/). The Duncan Black Macdonald Center is the oldest center of its kind in the United States. Dr. Grafton holds a PhD in Islamic Studies, from the Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, University of Birmingham, England, an MDiv from Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, and a BA from Capital University, Columbus, Ohio.

Prior to his appointment at the Hartford Seminary Dr. Grafton served as the Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian Muslim Relations at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and was the Director of Graduate Studies. He has also served as the Coordinator of Graduate Studies and Director of the Center for Middle East Christianity at the Evangelical (Presbyterian) Theological Seminary in Cairo, adjunct lecturer in Islamic studies at the Dar Comboni Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Cairo, Egypt.

Dr. Grafton’s academic interests focus on Christian-Muslim relationships, history of Christianity in the Middle East, American Christian perspectives on religion and society in the Middle East, and 19th and 20th Protestant missionary thought on Islam. He has provided lectures and seminars on Middle East Religion and Society, Islam, and Christian-Muslim Relations for both the academy and the church throughout the US, Canada, England and the Middle East (including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Sudan). He is the author of numerous articles, and chapters of books as well as The Christians of Lebanon: Political Rights in Islamic Law (I.B. Tauris, 2004), and Piety, Politics and Power: Lutherans Encountering Islam in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, 2009), The Contested Origins of the 1865 Arabic Bible (Brill, 2015). He is the North American Sections editor for the bibliographic history Christian-Muslim Relations 1500-1900 (CMR1900) [ http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/ptr/departments/theologyandreligion/research/projects/CMR1900/CMR1900.aspx].

David D. Grafton is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has served Lutheran congregations in New Jersey, England, and an international congregation in Cairo, Egypt. He is married to and has three children.

* This bio is taken from Hartford Seminary