Ramon Harvey

Dr Ramon Harvey lectures in Islamic theology within Cambridge Muslim College’s BA programme. Over the three years of the programme, students study a text in both ʿaqīda and ʿilm al-kalām in detail, as well as critical historical context of the development of these disciplines and ongoing contemporary discussions on them. His research currently focuses on the same area, with a special interest in the Māturīdī tradition, including the works of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) and his successors in Transoxiana in the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries. He argues that there are rich theological resources in this early tradition that, until recently, have been largely neglected by both broader Islamic thought and contemporary scholarship. Thus, as well as writing studies on this literature, he is involved in the editing, translation and commentary of key early texts to make them more accessible. Alongside his historical work, he is part of the constructive effort to renew Islamic theology (kalām jadīd), and explore its intersection with contemporary philosophical movements. With respect to analytic philosophy, he has worked on metaphysical and epistemological topics, whereas his activity in phenomenology has focused on the ideas of Edmund Husserl.

Despite his present attention to theology and philosophy, Ramon retains an interest in the development of the field of Qur’anic studies, in which he has published a monograph and a number of articles. One way in which he does this is through editing the series Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology. In this role, he works with staff at Edinburgh University Press to commission and editorially review major new books in all aspects of Qur’anic studies, Hadith studies and Islamic theology. Between 2020 and 2023, he led a significant project on epistemology in Islamic thought in conversation with Christian theology and analytic philosophy, which was funded by the John Templeton Foundation and hosted at Cambridge Muslim College. He has presented his research in scholarly convenings around the UK, in the USA, Turkey, Germany, Italy and Qatar, and on various online platforms.