Heather Miller Rubens, Ph.D.

Executive Director and Roman Catholic Scholar

Heather Miller Rubens, Ph.D. is Executive Director and Roman Catholic Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (ICJS), where she leads the organization’s work to build an interreligious society in which dialogue replaces division, friendship overcomes fear, and education eradicates ignorance.

Her research and writing focus on the theological, ethical, and political questions raised by religious diversity in American public life — most centrally, the case for a multireligious democracy. She is the author of numerous essays and book chapters on interreligious dialogue, Catholic-Jewish-Muslim relations, and religion in the public square.

In 2026, she launched a new line of research at the intersection of religion and technology. She is lead investigator on the ICJS Interfaith Benchmark 1.0, a first-of-its-kind project evaluating how leading AI chatbots—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others—answer questions about Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and interfaith relations, scoring their responses for accuracy, bias, tone, and their capacity to support constructive dialogue.

Heather is a frequent keynote speaker, invited panelist, and media commentator on religion, dialogue, and public life. She has held a visiting scholar appointment at Princeton Theological Seminary, and serves on the Committee on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Christian Scholars Group, the board of the International Network for Interreligious Research and Education (INIRE), and the Board of Advisors of the Journal of Interreligious Studies. She has also served in leadership positions with the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR) and the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA).

She holds degrees from Georgetown University (B.A.), the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (G.Dip.), and the University of Chicago (A.M., Ph.D.).

EXPERTISE

Interreligious Dialogue in History & Practice
Religion and AI
Roman Catholicism & Interreligious Relations
Jewish-Christian Relations
Religion, Law & the Courts
Religion in the Public Square
Women & Interreligious Leadership

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Service to the Field

Interreligious Studies Media, Inc.
Vice President (September 2024-present)

University of Chicago Divinity School
Alumni Council (November 2022 – present)

Journal of Interreligious Studies
Board of Advisors (September 2021 – present)

Committee on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Committee Member (August 2014 – present)

Christian Scholars Group hosted the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR)
Invited Member (March 2015 – present)

Articles

We must have courage to dialogue, article in the National Catholic Reporter (September 25, 2024).

The casual, but dangerous antisemitism in Harrison Butker’s commencement speech, article in the National Catholic Reporter (May 29, 2024).

Scholarly Publications

“Developing Theologies of Encounter: Eva Fleischner, Fratelli Tutti, and the Unfolding Legacy of Nostra Aetate,” in Pluralizing Dialogue: Insights, Actions and Implications in Eva Fleischner’s “Judaism in German Christian Theology Since 1945,” Carol Rittner, John K. Roth, eds., National Center for Holocaust Education, Seton Hall University (2024).

Afterword in A Sacred Argument: Dispatches from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounter, by Christopher Leighton (2024).

“Interreligious Origin Stories: To Begin, and to Begin Again,” in With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps and Mistakes, Lucinda Mosher, Elinor J. Pierce, Or N. Rose, eds. Orbis Books (2023).

Essay, “To Remember & To Avoid, Ten Lessons for Today,” in Seelisberg@75, the 75th Anniversary of the Seelisberg Conference, International Council of Christians and Jews, (2022).

Essay, “Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) – Christology & Dangerous Interreligious Questions” Digital archive project of Indiana University Bloomington’s Center for Religion & the Human. (October 2021)

“Going up to the Mountain of the Lord: A Call for Intersectional Interreligious Justice” (online forum) American Religion

“Toward an Interreligious City: A Case Study” in Interreligious / Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field, Eboo Patel, Jennifer Howe Peace and Noah J. Silverman, eds. Beacon Press (2018).

“Rebellious Jews on the Edge of Empire: The Judæo-Irish Home Rule Association” in Irish Questions and Jewish Questions, Aiden Beatty and Dan O’Brien, eds. Syracuse University Press (2018).

“‘Something has Gone Wrong’: The JFS Case and Defining Jewish Identity in the Courtroom” Maryland Journal of International Law 29 (2014) p. 366-418.

“Interreligious Dialogue in a Post-Nostra Aetate Church: The Tension between Mutuality and Evangelization” in Visions of Hope: Emerging Theologians Envision the Future of the Church: 50 Years After Vatican II, Kevin Ahern, ed. (Orbis Books, 2013).

“The JFS Case: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and Jewish Identity – A Case Study” for Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms & Local Practices based at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University.

“A ‘Judeo-Christian’ Myth of Disestablishment: The Legacy of McGowan v. Maryland” Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception 2, no. 2 (2012): 305-18.

“Who is Jewish Enough for Anglo-Jewish Schools?” Sightings (June 17, 2010)

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

The Maryland Daily Record’s Off the Record video podcast: Baltimore’s Heather Miller Rubens holds space for respectful religious disagreement (July 28, 2026).

Invited Keynote Lecture: “God-seeking & Neighbor-seeking: Teleological Tensions in Interreligious Encounters,” INIRE Annual Meeting, Katholische Akademie Berlin (July 21, 2025).

“Who is Jesus? – An Interreligious Exploration,” WYPR interview with Tom Hall (April, 17, 2025).

Presenter & Dialogue Facilitator: “Congregational Leaders Workshop,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM, February 27, 2025), with Dr. Benjamin E. Sax.

Keynote Lecturer: “Nostra Aetate at 60—Imagining Muslim-Christian Relations for the Next 60 Years,” Catholic Theological Union (February 26, 2025).

Paper: “Whose Christianity Anyway? Theological Contestations in the Public,” University of Edinburgh, Centre for Theology and Public Issues (January 9-10, 2025).

Invited Panelist: “Mapping the Field of Religious Literacy: A Work-in-Progress Roundtable,” American Academy of Religion (AAR) Conference – Religion and Public Schools Unit (November 25, 2024).

Invited Panelist: “Best Practices for Campus & Community Programming in Tense Times,” Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations Annual Meeting – Catholic Theological Union (November 4, 2024) with Dr. Benjamin E. Sax.

Invited lecture: “Mending Relationships, Mending the World,” Iona University (September 2024) with Dr. Benjamin E. Sax.

Invited Workshop: “Dialogue and Religious Pluralism: Communicating across Religious Differences,” Loyola University Maryland (September 20, 2024), with Christine Gallagher.

Invited Workshop: “Dialogue & Tisha B’Av” Beth Israel Congregation (August 12, 2024).

“Holy Friendships in Unholy Days: Interreligious Relationships as Source & Method,” (June 2024), workshop presented with Elena Procario-Foley of Iona University at the annual convention of the International Council of Christians and Jews in Salzburg, Austria.

“Keeping Faith with Our Interreligious Partners in a Time of War,” (June 2024), panel at the annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America in Baltimore.

Invited Interview: “Episode #50: Heather Miller Rubens” Daily Theology Podcast (released January 31, 2024).

Invited presenter: “Building an Interreligious Society” (Baltimore, MD), Hate Bias and Crime Reporting Foru Hosted by Maryland Commission on Civil Rights; Maryland Office of the Attorney General; Baltimore City Office of Equity & Civil Rights; Baltimore County Government Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (January 31, 2024)

Invited Keynote Lecturer: “’The Very Stuff of Salvation:’ Eva Fleischner’s Reorientation to Religious Pluralism,” Eva Fleischner Lectures Seton Hill University–Greensburg, PA (October 18, 2023), with Dr. Benjamin E. Sax.

Invited Workshop: “Teaching Religion in Public (TRiP): Religions & Justice—Facilitating Multireligious Public Conversations,” Indiana University Bloomington (September 11, 2023).

Workshop: “Changing Textures in Christian-Jewish Encounter & Dialogue” The Parliament of World Religions, Chicago, IL (August 16, 2023), with Dr. Benjamin E. Sax.

Workshop: “Public School Teachers at the Frontiers of a Multireligious Democracy” Tufts University, Frontiers of Democracy conference (July 14, 2023).

Invited Plenary Panelist: International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) / Council of Centers on Christian- Jewish Relations (CCJR) Annual Meeting, (Boston June 18-21, 2023).

“The Urgency of Interreligious Pluralism,” Interview, Faithful Politics Podcast (March 8, 2023).

Noli Me Tangere Symposium (Bloomington, IN—March 2-4, 2023) Indiana University.

Religion in America Workshop (Princeton, NJ—November 3, 2022) Princeton University.

PTS Visiting Scholars Workshop (Princeton, NJ—November 8, 2022) Princeton University.

“Religion and DEI: Possibilities and Limitations” (Denver, November 2022) Academic Relations Committee; American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual meeting.

“Organizational Myth-Making & Justice Work” Invited workshop presentation given to the Emerging Scholars in Political Theology. Villanova University (August 2022).

“Dr. Eva Fleischner (1925-2020) and the Prospects for Interreligious Theological Thinking” (Atlanta, June 2022).

Women’s Consultation in Constructive Theology; Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) Annual Meeting.

“Teaching Against Islamophobia in Baltimore: Asymmetries of Power in Interreligious Dialogue” (San Antonio, November 2021), Islamophobia Seminar; American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual meeting.

“Catholicism and Interreligious Dialogue” (interview) Catholicism and Culture Podcast, Center for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas in Houston (October 18, 2021).

“Catholic and Protestant Responses to the Pandemic” (online; Oct 1, 2021) The Global Lehrhaus Institute roundtable discussion.

“Thinking Interreligiously on Civic Challenges: Water Justice and the Abrahamic Traditions” (online; June 22, 2021) International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) annual meeting.

“Anti-Black Racism, Antisemitism & Islamophobia Today – Interrogating the Role of Supersessionism in White Supremacy” (online; June 11, 2021) Catholic Theological Society of America Annual Meeting, Christianity & Judaism Consultation.

“The Importance of Public-facing Religious Scholarship” (February 2021) St. Louis University, Department of Theological Studies, Graduate Student series.

“Religion & Law” Invited Guest Lecturer (February 2021) Indiana University Bloomington.

“Illiberal Religion and the Question of Community” Roundtable (online; December 10, 2020) Law, Religion & Culture Unit; American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual meeting.

“American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective” (online; October 26, 2020) Council of Centers for Christian-Jewish Relations Annual Meeting; invited respondent.

ESSAYS ON A MULTIRELIGIOUS DEMOCRACY

We must have courage to dialogue, article in the National Catholic Reporter (September 25, 2024).

We need more religion talk to safeguard our democracy, ICJS website.

Our Multireligious Democracy is Under Threat, ICJS website.

The Urgency of Religious Pluralism, ICJS website.

Power Grids and Fireworks, ICJS website.

Pope Leo XIV and the Future of the Roman Catholic Church

2025-06-04

This event featured a panel discussion on the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Panelists examined the global and interreligious implications of his historic election, his relationship to the legacy of Pope Francis, and the early indications of the priorities that may shape his pontificate. The discussion also addressed Pope Leo’s expressed concern for the ethical and moral dimensions of artificial intelligence—an increasingly urgent area at the intersection of faith, technology, and public life.

The 2025 ICJS Silber-Obrecht Lecture: What Does it Mean to be Human? Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Perspectives (livestream)

2025-04-22

In this conversation event based on the Silber-Obrecht Lectures, Rabbi Dr. Rachel S. Mikva will draw from scriptures and their interpretations to explore what diverse notions of “the human” mean for our daily lives, communities, and body politic. The Silber-Obrecht Lectures (two lectures and a response) have been pre-recorded and are available for viewing now on the Silber-Obrecht Videos page of the ICJS website. All registrants to this conversation event will receive an email with a link to the recorded lectures.

Select Publications and Presentations

Developing Theologies of Encounter: Eva Fleischner, Fratelli Tutti, and the Unfolding Legacy of Nostra Aetate

Chapter in the book: Pluralizing Dialogue: Insights, Actions, and Implications in Eva Fleischner's "Judaism in German Christian Theology Since 1945."

We must have courage to dialogue

Opinion article in the National Catholic Reporter.

We need more religion-talk to safeguard our democracy

At ICJS we believe that a multireligious democracy is not only possible, but absolutely necessary. That means more religion-talk.