Preparing for the Stranger: Assessing Theories for Analyzing and Attending to Religious-Based Conflict

Abstract

This thesis will address two related questions: one regarding conflict analysis and the other conflict resolution. As instruments for analyzing religious-based conflict, what are the possibilities and limitations of: 1.) Theologies of the Other and the ethical grounds for interreligious dialogue, 2.) Fowler's theory of faith development for individuals, and 3.) Rothbart & Korostelina's theory of axiological difference for groups? As a theory informing interreligious dialogue as a means of addressing religious-based conflict, what are the possibilities and limitations for hermeneutical theory in the tradition of Hans- Georg Gadamer? This study will conclude by identifying opportunities for incorporating the findings of this research and possibilities for future research during the author's follow-on assignment as the World Religions Instructor at the United States Army Chaplain Center and School.