RT Article
T1 Searching for interreligious understanding: complex engagements with sameness and difference in an American women's interfaith book group
JF Journal of beliefs and values
VO 38
IS 3
SP 341
OP 351
A1 Gramstrup, Louise K.
LA English
PB Routledge
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1571414371
AB This article explores the interreligious dynamic between Muslim and non-Muslim members of the American women's interfaith book group, Daughters of Abraham. It uses ethnographic material to examine how Jewish, Christian and Muslim participants use the categories of sameness and difference to position themselves in relation to each other. The influence of the sociocultural context on the positions taken is also considered. I argue that the individual engagements with religious commonalities and differences serve to explore, develop and assert religious identities. Moreover, they contribute to generating interreligious understanding. I propose that the categories of sameness and difference help capture and account for the nuanced dynamics of interreligious encounters, and so advance our understanding of this particular type of social interaction. I conclude that a tension exists between the approach taken by the organisation's leadership and individual members to engaging with religious diversity, which highlights the complexity involved in engendering interreligious understanding.
K1 Abrahamic Religions
K1 Ethnography
K1 Identity
K1 Interreligious encounters
K1 sameness/difference
K1 Women
DO 10.1080/13617672.2017.1317527