Muslims and Christians came together May 20 to acknowledge their common history and ancient bonds as Toronto’s Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies awarded His Highness the Aga Khan with its highest degree.
In his role as chancellor of the prestigious graduate school, Cardinal Thomas Collins bestowed an honourary doctor of letters in Mediaeval Studies on the spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims.
Collins praised the Aga Khan as a religious voice of reason, peace and humanity.
“This is what you have so consistently done over the years — to bring peace and to bring hope,” Collins said. “Our society is so often turned into rather a cold place by the cold winds of secularism.”
The honourary doctorate highlights a new program at the 87-year-old pontifical institute attached to St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. In the last year the institute has initiated a program that concentrates on the three Abrahamic faiths and their interaction in the mediaeval period. Without the contributions of Muslims scholars, the rediscovery of Plato and Aristotle, which led to the philosophical and theological achievements of Thomas Aquinas, would not have been possible.
Read more at the source: By Michael Swan for the Catholic Register – May 25, 2016
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