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Conflicts and Encounters between Religions: War, Peace, Politics and the Quest for Dialogue

Module description

For all of their history, religions have encountered other religions and, in many cases, entered into dialogue and peace-building with them. Far too often, less than successfully, religions have met one another with acrimony, violence and war. In each case, politics has played a major role whether for good or for ill. Other times, the conflicts and encounters have clarified religious teaching and led to a cross-fertilization between different religious traditions. This module draws on a variety of disciplines to examine the history of interreligious conflicts and encounters, and the contemporary turn towards a sympathetic comparative theology that aligns different traditions theologically while drawing on the practices of interreligious dialogue. We will examine contemporary and historic clashes between religious traditions where there has been bloodshed (e.g. the Crusades, War in Ukraine, Israel-Palestinian war in Gaza), often fuelled in modern times by nationalism, the persecution of religious minorities, as well as contemporary culture war issues where religious traditions have been deeply divided (e.g. gay and trans rights, abortion, women’s rights).

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module invites you to explore:

• The history of interreligious conflict and encounter from a Christian perspective, as well as the differing Christian theologies of religion (including the relatively new discipline of ‘comparative theology’)
• The history of wars and enmity between different religious traditions, with attention to religious nationalism in the modern age (e.g. far right supporters of Trump and anti-Muslim rhetoric).
• The persecution of religious minorities (e.g. Ottoman Empire, persecution of Christians and Muslims in Myanmar, non-Muslim minorities in the Middle East)
• Contemporary culture war issues where religious traditions have been deeply divided (e.g. gay and trans rights, abortion, women’s rights, antisemitism, as well as Hindu-nationalist attacks on Christians and Muslims).
• The field of ‘political theology’ from Augustine and Eusebius of Caesarea to Carl Schmitt, Karl Barth and Slavoj Žižek.
• The role of ideology in contemporary religious and ethnic conflicts (e.g. Russkii mir/Russian world ideology in Ukraine, Zionism and Palestinian nationalism in Gaza).
• The different practices of interreligious dialogue, with a strong emphasis on its place in the public sphere
• The category of ‘religion’ in relationship to how it is used in the construction of the religious Other
• The history of Christian conflict and encounter with other religious traditions
• The standard ‘models’ in the theology of religion that look at redemption in relation to other religions, including exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism as well as post-liberal critiques of these models and the contemporary turn to ‘comparative theology’

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Critically evaluate the difference and similarity between inter-religious dialogue, theologies of religion, and comparative theology
• 2. Demonstrate a detailed knowledge and understanding of the different historical and contemporary constructions of ‘religion’ and the ‘religious’
• 3. Describe in detail and critically assess the history of Christian conflicts and encounters with other religious traditions
• 4. Demonstrate a detailed understanding of the different models in the theology of religion as well as the substance of the critiques of these models
• 5. Critically analyse differing political theologies and the role of ideology in past and present religious conflicts
• 6. Discuss critically and in detail the role of religion in multiple contemporary ‘culture wars’ issues from abortion to trans rights

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of, and critical reflection on, contrasting and even contradictory scholarly and historical perspectives
• 8. Demonstrate command of some core methods of study: Christian historical analysis, systematic theological reasoning and philosophical analysis
• 9. Critically analyse and then put into dialogue different religious traditions, showing a detailed understanding of the multi-faceted history of Christian encounters with other non-Christian traditions

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 10. Articulate clearly and critically one’s point of view in both written and oral forms, participating with sympathy and good humour in class discussions
• 11. Assimilate in a relatively short span complex and detailed arguments, and communicate this knowledge effectively to others

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Theories and constructions of the ‘religious’ and ‘religion’
• The history of conflicts between religions
• Religious nationalism
• The role of religious ideology in past and present conflicts
• The tradition of political theology from Augustine to Žižek
• The history of ‘culture wars’ in the East and West, with attention to the role of religion
• Religion, interreligious encounter, and the public sphere 
• The history of inter-religious encounter and Christian theologizing on the religious Other
• Models of the theology of religion
• Post-liberal critiques of Christian models of the theology of religion and contemporary ‘comparative theology’
• Case-studies of inter-religious encounter: scriptural reasoning, worship and contemplative practices

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Cornille, Catherine, ed., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).
• De Vries, Hent. & Lawrence E. Sullivan, eds., Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006).
• Haynes, Jeffrey, ed., Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, 3rd Ed. (London: Routledge, 2023).
• Omer, Atelia., R. Scott Appleby & David Little, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
• Race, Alan & Paul M. Hedges, eds. Christian Approaches to Other Faiths (London: SCM, 2008).
• Roald, Anne Sofie. And Anh Nga Longva, Religious Minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
• Stoeckl, Kristina., Ingeborg Gabriel and Aristotle Papanikolaou, eds., Political Theologies in Orthodox Christianity (London: T & T Clark-Bloomsbury, 2017).
• Wellman, James K. Jr., Scott Noegel and Sarah Culpepper Stroup, eds. Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence Across Time and Tradition (London: Rowman & Littlefield Pub., 2007).

Key words search

Religion, comparative theology, Christianity, interreligious dialogue