Aesthetics as Shared Interfaith Space between Christianity and Islam

Abstract

AbstractDue to its immediate message, religious aesthetics is prone to various kinds of instrumentations in the contemporary world. In this context the aesthetic fundamentals shared by different religious traditions or scriptures must be rediscovered. This article argues for theological aesthetics as an effective category of analyzing religious identity and alterity. It looks at the aesthetics of revelation and scripture, and their reflexes in the embodied faith – architecture, ritual, and faith narratives – to articulate a comparative aesthetic theology of Christianity and Islam. The focus of this article lies in the interreligious potentialities of religious aesthetics, in the case of (Eastern) Christianity and Islam, conceived as a resonance chamber for similar sensibilities in the two religions.