God’s Mercy is Broader than This: Theological Sensibilities and Interreligious Theological Education

Abstract

Why and how does interreligious theological education matter? In this chapter I reflect on such questions through in-the-field experiences of Muslim chaplains trained at Hartford Seminary. In moments of crisis—situations that viscerally encapsulate multitudes of embodied histories and hierarchies of power—chaplains rely on semi-nary courses that interweave theological, comparative and pastoral threads. The inter-sectional quality of such coursework is impactful because it is formational: it enables seminary students to hone a more nuanced, deeper sense of the pluralistic spaces they inhabit. Employing William E. Connolly’s theory of pluralism, I argue that interreli-gious theological education matters when it adds depth to the experience and politics of pluralism.