Mark Durie

Mark Durie (born 1958) is an Australian Anglican priest and a scholar in linguistics and theology. He is the founding director of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness, a Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a senior research fellow of the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at the Melbourne School of Theology.

Career Durie was born in Papua to missionary parents, and grew up in Canberra.

Durie was awarded a Ph.D. by the Australian National University in 1984. Subsequently, he held visiting appointments at the University of Leiden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Los Angeles, Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. From 1987 to 1997 he held positions of postdoctoral fellow, lecturer, senior lecturer, reader and associate professor at the University of Melbourne. He was elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1992. He holds a BTh (Hons), and DipTh from the Australian College of Theology and in 2016 completed a Th.D. with the Australian College of Theology and Melbourne School of Theology.

Durie has published articles and books on the Acehnese language of Aceh, Indonesia, linguistics, the genesis of the Quran and interfaith relations. His 1985 book A grammar of Acehnese: on the basis of a dialect of North Aceh has been described as "an urgently needed modern description of a very important language", and Durie has himself later been described as "the most accomplished specialist on Acehnese writing in English". He was the editor of the book The comparative method: regularity and irregularity in language change along with Malcolm Ross in 1996.

Durie has also been described as "an accomplished scholar of issues involving Christianity and Islam". He devoted himself to study Islam following the September 11 attacks in 2001, after he had previously been familiar with Islam in Aceh. Ye'or had earlier written a positive review of Durie's book Revelation? Do we Worship the same God? in National Review in 2006. Durie's 2013 book Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude through the Cross has been said to provide "tools for Christians (particularly those living under the dominance of Islam) to adopt a biblical understanding of the cross in order to set them free from the influence of Islam", while his 2018 book The Qur'an and its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion has been described as "a highly original work and a substantial contribution to the field of Qurʾānic Studies".

Durie has been noted for his writings on the linguistics relations between the Quran and the Bible, seeing the Quran as "biblical borrowing".

Durie spoke at a World Congress of Families conference in 2014, saying that the breakdown of the traditional family was "causing an epidemic of social problems". He has also provided commentary on Sky News Australia about the Anglican Church, as well as about the Quran and Hamas.

Works Books

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