Drawing and being drawn: on applying friendship to comparative theology

Abstract

Envisioning comparative theology as a religious dialogue that takes place in the wider context of friendship and good will represents a promising avenue for future approaches to the discipline. While the concept of friendship has already been brought up in discussions of comparative theology, less work has been done in comparative theology to flesh out the philosophical dimensions of friendship. In other words, comparative theologians often speak of friendship, but they tend not to clarify. what they mean by their use of the word. As a result, the application of the term "friendship" to the praxis of comparative theology has often remained tantalizingly vague. This essay draws from the philosophical work on friendship of D. Cocking and J. Kennett, as well as B. Helm, to offer two key criteria for a fruitful model of comparative theology that would lend itself to concrete practice: The "drawing" view model of friendship (Cocking and Kennett) paired with the notion of plural agency (Helm) represent precise yet flexible concepts for dialogue.