Blurring boundaries and advancing interreligious understanding by engaging textual "others" in a women's interfaith book group

This article casts analytical light on how Jewish, Christian and Muslim women develop understanding of religious identities by engaging with multidimensional textual ‘others' in the Daughters of Abraham interfaith book groups. It focuses on a group discussion of a rabbi's memoir about her...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gramstrup, Louise K. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor and Francis Group [2018]
In: Culture and religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 19, Issue: 3, Pages: 298-316
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Women's societies and clubs / Muslim woman / Christian woman / Jewish woman / Religion / Text / Discussion / Interfaith dialogue
RelBib Classification:AX Inter-religious relations
CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This article casts analytical light on how Jewish, Christian and Muslim women develop understanding of religious identities by engaging with multidimensional textual ‘others' in the Daughters of Abraham interfaith book groups. It focuses on a group discussion of a rabbi's memoir about her religious journey. Drawing on ethnographic material and Talal Asad's analysis of the relationship between text and reader, I examine how narratives outside primary religious texts influence ideas about Jewish, Christian and Muslim identities. I argue that the Daughters members' appropriation of literary voices advances their engagement with religious diversity by developing understanding of religious self and others. Moreover, members' navigation of inter- and intra-religious relations during discussions of texts blur boundaries for inclusion into this interfaith encounter. This examination raises questions about issues of identity, power dynamics and interfaith relations. Importantly, it provides novel insight into the understudied areas of women's interreligious encounter and shared reading practices.
ISSN:1475-5629
Contains:Enthalten in: Culture and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2018.1466820