Interfaith dialogue as moral encounter

The concept of interfaith dialogue has been introduced and developed by scholars of different religions. The aim has been to find solutions from within religion to handle and optimise encounters with religious ‘Others’. Furthermore, interfaith dialogue has increasingly become a tool to solve problems of integration and geopolitical conflicts. Thus the focus has changed from religion as the solution to an ontologically given differentiation, to religion being the problem that must be transgressed in order to meet on equal terms. In this paper, I discuss the setup of interfaith dialogue meetings between Muslims and Christians and analyse the different moral orders involved and how – following these orders – the participants are expected to deal with differences. Main focus is on how the participants are expected to deal with a requirement of staying the same (as Christian or Muslim) while at the same time changing themselves into better – more tolerant – human beings.