Agree to Disagree? Allowing for Ideological Difference during Interfaith Dialogue Following Scriptural Reasoning

Abstract (Lang: English):Interfaith dialogue is a promising conflict resolution method and encourages participants to learn about and appreciate religious diversity. Yet, participants often need a facilitator’s help to learn how to converse successfully across areas of ideological differences, such as religion. A valuable resource for facilitators and scholars of interfaith dialogue would be intricate knowledge of how successful dialogue happens, particularly when participants disagree with one another. In this study, applied conversation analysis was used to examine moments of disagreement in interfaith dialogue. Beginning with abdicated other-initiated repair, participants expressed differences in opinion through assertion and counter-assertion sequences where they followed both other- and self-selected turn-taking patterns and used membership categories to bolster their claims. This analysis offers insight into how specific conversational tactics might lead to successful interfaith dialogue during critical moments of disagreement.