In the American context, most comparative theologians developed their field of research out of the encounter of Christianity and the Eastern religions. In centers of comparative theology in Europe, for example in Edinburgh, Leuven, Paderborn and Bonn, the focus shifted to the encounters of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This led to different challenges because of the special relationships between these three religions. Judaism and Christianity seem to have developed themselves in the first centuries of the common era in a kind of twin birth which ties them much closer together than we thought in the past. Furthermore, Jesus and Paul have increasingly been understood within the Judaism of their times rather than only focusing on differences. Many Christian theologians developed Israel theologies to respond to this close relationship and to appreciate the importance of Judaism for Christianity. Some Jewish theologians responded constructively to this approach. Recent historical research on the emergence of Islam suggests that Islam started as a believers’ movement which, encountering the conflicts between Christianity and Judaism, sought to develop an inclusive vision for all three religions. This approach might provide resources for Muslims to create an Islamic theology of Judaism and Christianity which tries to articulate a similar way of appreciation like Israel theology in Christianity. Some Jews and Christians might modify their own theologies of Islam in a way that is responsive to this development. Christians continue to integrate concrete ways of learning from Rabbinic Judaism, and must reflect seriously on the limits and implications of shaping their theologies with the help of Rabbinic and Qur’anic insights. Jews might not only respond creatively to the Qur’anic challenge, but also to Christian appropriations of Rabbinic theologies. In this conference, we discussed new approaches in the theologies of the three religions that study their special relationships. Thereby, two meta questions have been addressed. First, do these approaches necessarily entail an asymmetry due to the order of appearance of the respective religions? Second, how is approaching this special relationship different from approaching other religious traditions comparatively?
Our conference in Bonn was the first step of a series of conferences held every two years in the beginning of September on Comparative Theology in Europe, 2026 in Edinburgh, 2028 in Leuven, 2030 in Paderborn and then at other European centers of Comparative Theology.