Brings together scholars from four continents to produce “dispatches” on the current state of this burgeoning field. The volume probes the context, parameters, and contours of interreligious studies, including its relation to other disciplines, its promise as a field of research, its particular terminology and methodology, and its civic agenda.

Foreword by Anna HalafoffPreface—Hans Gustafson1 Introduction—Hans GustafsonPart 1. Sketching the Field2 Area, Field, Discipline—Oddbjørn Leirvik3 Identifying the Field of Research—Geir Skeie4 A Civic Approach to Interfaith Studies—Eboo Patel5 The Scholar, the Theologian, and the Activist—Marianne Moyaert6 Lessons from a Liminal Saint—Mark E. Hanshaw7 Interreligion and Interdisciplinarity—Jeanine Diller8 Interreligious or Transreligious?—Anne Hege GrungPart 2. History and Method9 Historical Precedents—Thomas Albert Howard10 From Comparison to Conversation—Frans Wijsen11 Ethnographic Approaches and Limitations—Nelly van Doorn-Harder12 Vitality of Lived Religion Approaches—Hans Gustafson13 Empirical Approaches to Interreligious Relations—Ånund Brottveit14 Ecumenical and Interreligious—Aaron Hollander15 Places and Spaces of Encounter—Timothy ParkerPart 3. Theological and Philosophical Considerations16 Grist for Theological Mills—J. R. Hustwit17 Dialogical Theology and Praxis—Wolfram Weisse18 Interreligious Theology and Truth Seeking—Perry Schmidt-Leukel19 Vivekananda's Vision—Jeffery D. LongPart 4. Contemporary Challenges20 Decolonizing the Study of Religion—Kevin Minister21 Decolonizing Interreligious Studies—Paul Hedges22 Secular Imperatives—Kate McCarthy23 (Neo)Liberal Challenges—Brian K. Pennington24 Complicating Religious Identity—Russell C. D. Arnold25 In Reactionary Times—Rachel S. Mikva26 Confronting Xenoglossophobia—Caryn D. Riswold and Guenevere Black Ford27 Kairos Palestine and Autoimmune Rejection—Peter A. PettitV Praxis and Possibility28 Cross-Cultural Leadership as Interfaith Leadership—Barbara A. McGraw29 Interreligious Empathy—Catherine Cornille30 Howard Thurman's Mentorship of Zalman Schachter-Shalomi—Or N. Rose31 Peacebuilding—Navras J. Aafreedi32 Nation Building—Asfa Widiyanto33 Scholarship as Activism—Jeannine Hill Fletcher34 Dialogue and Christian–Muslim Relations—Douglas Pratt35 Gender and Christian–Muslim Relations—Deanna Ferree Womack36 Conclusion—Hans Gustafson