The Films

Judith Wolfe, a philosopher and theologian shaped by Christian, Jewish, and European traditions, explores how eschatology—our vision of the world’s end—shapes the way we live in the present.

“We have to take seriously the claim that we do not yet live in the world as it will be, and as we will be, and that we have to live towards an eschaton, a presence of God in the world, which is not only not yet apparent, but is not even comprehensible to us. So how do we live authentically in this life?”

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Judith Wolfe, Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Sufi scholar Suheyl Umar explores the depths of the human self as a triune being—body, personality, and the infinite center. Drawing from the wisdom of multiple traditions, Umar invites us to recover what he calls the “hidden self,” a divine reservoir of being that is never exhausted and radiates consciousness and bliss. For Umar, the spiritual journey is not about altered states of consciousness, but altered states of character—becoming more loving, compassionate, and aware of the divine reality closer to us than our own jugular vein.

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Muhammad Suheyl Umar, Former Director of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan, and leading Sufi scholar.

Flemish Catholic theologian Lieven Boeve reflects on the deep disorientation of our age—and how theology must be reborn not as a system of answers, but as a humble “interruption” of closed narratives. Shot in the decaying churches and landscapes of his youth, the film traces Boeve’s lifelong attempt to reimagine theology not as certainty, but as love that refuses to close itself off. God, for Boeve, is the One who interrupts us—who breaks open our settled identities, reclaims the forgotten other, and appears again and again in the wounded, the vulnerable, and the contingent beauty of the everyday.

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Lieven Boeve, Professor of Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium, and Director-General of Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen, the Flemish Office for Catholic Education.

A scholar of staggering breadth, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl speaks about the collapse of Islamic civilization and the urgent need to reclaim its soul through beauty, creativity, and mercy. From colonial trauma to fundamentalist repression, he traces the forces that stifled pluralism in Islam—and the cost of abandoning the search for meaning. He teaches that the Qur’an is a living, evolving revelation.

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Khaled Abou el Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA

Christopher Brewer’s film is a reflection on risk, wonder, and theological imagination. A scholar of natural theology and longtime advisor at the Templeton Religion Trust, Brewer invites us into a restless, curious search for truth—one that welcomes art, science, and doubt itself. He challenges a theology obsessed with getting it “right,” advocating instead for intellectual hospitality and courageous inquiry.

Catholic theologian M. Shawn Copeland reflects on the dignity of Black life through am embodied, womanist theology shaped by suffering, struggle, and hope. Centering her work on “the many thousand gone,” Copeland honors the broken and dead bodies of Black women and enslaved people as sites of divine revelation—placing them beside the crucified Jewish Jesus on “the altar of her heart.” Through the lens of womanist theology, she calls for a praxis of justice rooted in the inviolability of humanity and the hope of liberation.

In the heart of Mexico City, Shaykha Amina Teslima al-Jerrahi leads a circle of whirling dervishes—women and men devoted to the search for the “hidden treasure”. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the Catholic tradition, she now guides a vibrant Sufi community within the Jerrahi lineage, offering a feminine expression of Islam that points toward an unmediated experience of God—an intimacy that begins where the self dissolves.

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Shaykha Amina Teslima al-Jerrahi, head minister of the Nur Ashki al Jerrahi Sufi Order of Mexico City

In this deeply moving portrait, Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein reflects on a vision of friendship that endures across the fractures of religion, politics, and identity. Drawing on decades of interfaith dialogue, Alon explores how genuine spiritual friendship dissolves fear and “otherness,” opening a space where Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and all seekers can recognize the reality of God in one another.

Alon’s conversation partners include:

• Hindu Swami Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai
• Imam Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, President of the Islamic Religious Community of Italy
• Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Papal Household
• Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, Archbishop of Assisi
• Greek Orthodox Archbishop Nikitas Loulias of Thyateira and Great Britain

Jewish theologian Benjamin Sommer invites us into the provocative, unfolding conversation that is Jewish theology. Sommer explores the idea of scripture not as a fixed rulebook but as a vibrant record of sacred debate—where multiple voices, tensions, and contradictions are the medium of divine engagement. At the heart of his teaching is a radically embodied vision of God—one whose presence is not abstract or distant, but visceral and near.

German theologian Perry Schmidt-Leukel invites us into a radical rethinking of faith—one shaped by his own journey from Catholicism to Buddhism and back again. Drawing from his groundbreaking “fractal” theory of religions, he posits that the patterns of difference we see between traditions also appear within them, and even within our own spiritual lives. Amid controversy and censure, Schmidt-Leukel has spent a lifetime building a theology capacious enough to honor the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible, the Buddha and Christ.

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Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Professor of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the University of Muenster, Germany, and Director of the Institute for Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology.

Moshe Idel, one of the most influential Jewish scholars of all time, reflects on Kabbalah as a living, evolving process—“a constant that is constantly changing.” Idel recalls his own improbable journey—from a small Romanian town to becoming Israel’s leading interpreter of Jewish mysticism.

Islamic theologian Martin Nguyen traces his journey from a Vietnamese Catholic upbringing to becoming a Muslim scholar deeply invested in faith, justice, and the prophetic voice. Grounded in the personal—his family’s refugee history, the aftermath of 9/11, and his conversion to Islam—Nguyen offers a bold vision for theology as both a communal and poetic response to God’s ongoing revelation. With clarity and grace, he calls for a theology rooted in lived experience and responsive to the realities of racism, displacement, and divine presence in the everyday.

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Martin Nguyen, Professor of Islamic Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Fairfield University.

George Kordis is one of the world’s most influential Eastern Orthodox iconographers. In this cinematic portrait, Kordis invites us into the sacred language of icons—not as static representations of the past, but as presences that bring Paradise into the here and now. Drawing on deep theological study, he shows how every curve, every line, is a kind of liturgical dance—an act of love and freedom in service to God. For Kordis, to paint is to write theology with the body.

This film traces the arc of Coakley’s life as one of the most influential theologians of her generation—trained at Cambridge and Harvard, grounded in patristics, philosophy, and feminist thought. But at the heart of her theology lies a practice often dismissed in academic circles: contemplative prayer. Here, Coakley reflects on the stillness beneath the intellect, where desire is reordered, power is decentered, and God is encountered not as concept but as presence. For Coakley, contemplation can be a catalyst—a sometimes terrifying yet courageous path of intellectual, spiritual, and ethical transformation.

Irish philosopher William Desmond reflects on the porous nature of being, the metaphysics of love, and the role of revelation in human life. In this poetic and searching film, Desmond explores the meaning of porosity—a radical openness to what surprises us, unsettles us, and breaks through our illusions. This is a theological disposition not of fragility but of receptivity: a letting-be that allows the light of God to pass through.

“Porosity,” he says, “is almost nothing… but it is the nothing that allows light to pass.”

Raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, Hartman loved Judaism—and yet was told, again and again, that there was no place for her joy in prayer, her voice, or her leadership as a woman. Rather than leave Orthodoxy, she dared to stay and create something new. This film traces her spiritual resilience: from painful exclusion in childhood prayer, to launching a feminist synagogue, to founding a university where marginalized communities—Arab, Orthodox Jewish, secular, Druze—can learn together with dignity. For Hartman, the question is not whether God speaks, but whether we live with enough integrity and love to listen and act.

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Tova Hartman, Dean of Humanities at Ono Academic College, Israel.

David Brown, Anglican priest and theologian, reflects on the unfolding nature of divine revelation. For Brown, Scripture is not a fixed or infallible record, but part of a living, evolving tradition—one that continues to speak through changing human conditions, art, and encounter. David explores prayer, beauty, and the otherness of God, reminding us that the greater part of revelation may still lie ahead.

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David Brown, Emeritus Professor St Andrews, Scotland. David taught at the universities of Oxford, Durham, and St. Andrews before retiring in 2015.

In this intimate portrait, the late Professor Ann Loades reflects on a life in theology. One of only two people ever awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen for services to theology, Loades challenged the marginalization of women in both church and academy, insisting that theology is not abstract speculation but lived, felt, and fiercely contested.

One of the great figures in 20th and 21st century theology, this film offers a glimpse of her indomitable spirit.

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Ann Loades was Honorary Professorial Fellow of St. Chad’s College and Professor Emerita in Divinity at the University of Durham, UK, where she was the first woman to be given a chair personal to herself.

Ann passed away on Dec 6, 2022.

Jewish scholar Susannah Heschel reflects on the buried connections between two of history’s deepest traumas—the Holocaust and American slavery—and how their echoes shaped a moral vision that still challenges us today. Through the legacy of her father, Abraham Joshua Heschel, who fled Nazi Germany and marched with Martin Luther King Jr., the film explores how prophetic faith can confront evil not with despair, but with audacity. From German racial theology to the power of Black spiritual resistance, this is a story about memory, moral clarity, and the broken heart as the ground of wholeness.

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Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College

Cemalnur Sargut is among the most influential Sufi teachers in the Muslim world and one of Turkey’s most beloved spiritual guides, known for uniting deep scholarship with a life of radical love. In this intimate portrait, she reflects on God’s nearness in joy and loss, the beauty of servanthood, and the call to unite religions in love. Through stories of her childhood, her murshid, and her own grief, she reveals a Sufism that transforms every act into a journey of love.

A senior leader of the Rifa’i Sufi order, she stands out as a rare and powerful female voice in contemporary Islamic spirituality—respected both as a scholar and as a guide to millions.

Garrick Allen invites us to rediscover the Book of Revelation—not as a coded map of the end times, but as a first-century protest text, resisting oppression with hope. Raised outside the church, Allen’s journey into theology is marked by personal upheaval and a deep curiosity about the sacred. His meticulous work on ancient Revelation manuscripts sheds light on long-overlooked commentaries, paratexts, and interpretive frames—evidence that reading Scripture is never neutral. Through close study and collaborative imagination, Allen shows how theology can challenge unjust systems and help us envision what a more just world might look like.

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Dr Garrick Allen, Senior Lecturer in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow.