Blair unveils faith course at Durham (From The Northern Echo)

Blair unveils faith course at Durham

11:40am Saturday 18th July 2009 in Search

DURHAM University is to be the first in Britain and only the third in the world to run a “faith and globalisation” course inspired by Tony Blair.

The former Prime Minister was back in the North-East on Friday of last week to make the announcement, and to meet the winners of the second schools tennis championships which bear his name. He also had time for a knockabout with former British number one Greg Rusedski at the Sunderland tennis centre.

Announcing his academic course, the former MP for Sedgefield said: “I am absolutely thrilled that Durham is going to be the UK university that’s going to take this course. Faith matters because it motivates, galvanises and enthuses billions of people.”

Yale University in the US and the National University of Singapore are already running the course, and Mr Blair hopes to get a further nine universities worldwide to take it on.

“Faith matters even more today because in a world being pushed together by the forces of globalisation, religious faith becomes a means of telling people apart which becomes divisive and sectarian,” he said during a lecture in Durham’s Calman Learning Centre, “so it is important that doesn’t happen.”

Prof Chris Higgins, the vice-chancellor of Durham University, said: “It will be about bringing together an understanding of faith and culture in a global context.”

He said you couldn’t assist a country like Bangladesh recover after natural catastrophes without understanding its faith, you couldn’t understand global banking without knowing about Islamic finance, you couldn’t be an archaeologist in the Middle East without knowledge of its culture.

Prof Higgins said it would be a masters course, financed by donations from alumni which had already been received, and a noted Brazilian academic has been appointed to lead the department.

Mr Blair, who grew up in the city, said: “We chose Durham because of its reputation, particularly in theology and Islamic studies, and as one of the more innovative and exciting universities in this country, and also for me, for sentimental reasons.

“Durham is very much the place that formed me, and the cathedral is still my most favourite spot in the entire world outside my own home.

“On the way here, we came past where I had my first drink when I was more or less 18, and my first kiss – although that might be an exaggeration: my first attempt.”