Der interreligiöse Dialog als Boundary Work

Abstract

The author assumes that the self-declared aim of peacemaking by interreligious Grassroots-groups is accompanied by several intended as well as unintended consequences, which effect the dynamics of boundary work, by not only balancing but also creating new differentiations and conflicts between confessions, groups and identities. In order to examine in particular the construction of the distinction between identity and alterity, the following paper adopts, firstly, a structuralist perspective, and, secondly, a socio-psychological approach, both focusing on boundary work. It poses the question whether something new is replacing the existing confessional institutionalized boundaries. In doing so, this paper will also examine how religion is treated and defined within these groups and negotiations and, last but not least, how researchers in the field of the study of religion are methodically dealing with these productive dynamics of religion within interreligious dialogue.