Searching for interreligious understanding: complex engagements with sameness and difference in an American women’s interfaith book group

Abstract

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.