Difference and Devotion: Interreligious Friendship and the Common Good

This paper brings together theoretical and Christian theological reflection and case studies. First, it reviews some traditional resources for a kind of practical theory/theology of difference. It suggests that attention to difference is an important corrective to the, perhaps more familiar, appeals to common ground in pursuit of the common good and peace. From there, it considers the history and contemporary work of two organizations, the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in Amman, Jordan and the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, Israel. In the end, it argues that interreligious friendship is a productive site for the articulation of a practical theory/theology of difference, considering the so-called "strange," which attention can train us to see, in ourselves and in our friends, in the interest of a kind of personal and political devotion, the common good, and peace.