Patrick J. Ryan (b. 1939), a member of the Society of Jesus, became the McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University in New York in 2009. He earned a doctorate at Harvard University in the comparative history of religion, specializing in Arabic and Islamic studies. In 1964 he began a long career as a teacher and academic administrator in West Africa, where he spent twenty-six years. He is the author of three books and numerous articles, scholarly and popular. As McGinley Professor, Fr. Ryan hopes to establish a “trialogue” of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam at Fordham.