From their very beginnings, Christianity and Islam have developed and expanded in the midst of other religions – as predecessors, competitors, targets for conversion, or as parallel traditions to be tolerated if not respected. The concrete historical circumstances have given rise to different modes of competition and coexistence, but even more particularly to different understandings – or misunderstandings – of these other religious traditions. The various papers presented here will explore the various, and sometimes shifting, ways in which Christians and Muslims have managed their relationships and attempted to comprehend other religions.
Chair: • Robert Launay (Northwestern University)
Panelists: • Robert Launay (Northwestern University) - Between the Diabolic and the Divine: Early missionary accounts of Native American religion • André Chappatte (ZMO Berlin) - Le Caillou, the maquis of [Christian] civil servants in the Muslim town of Odienné • Hafsa Oubou (Northwestern University) - The Teaching of Islam in Francophone Belgium: Education Reforms and the Muslim Youth • Benedikt Pontzen (University of Bayreuth) - How One Religion Sees Another: Muslims’ Framings of African Traditional Religion” in Asante (Ghana) • Felicitas Becker (Universiteit Gent) - Death and spectacle in debates on the nature of ‘true religion’ in Tanzania
