A Ministry/Khilāfa of Radical Kinship: The Theological Educator and Student as Interreligious Ally

Abstract

Alexander Abstract Inspired by the lyrics of Florence + the Machine’s riff on the story of the biblical (anti-) heroine Delilah (Judges 13–16), this paper seeks to contribute to the conversation on the nature of the emerging field of interreligious studies through the lens of the strug-gle to be an interreligious ally. It argues that conversations about the telos/teloi of interreligious studies lie at the heart of broader discussions concerning the shifting orientations of theological education in general in the first few decades of the twenty-first century. After exploring some of the challenges involved in aspiring to be an interreligious ally (specifically the intersectional dynamics around race, gender, and sexual orientation), the paper pursues an original exegesis of Qur’an 2:30–33 as the basis for an exercise in comparative Christian-Muslim theology. It proposes “ministry/ khilāfa of radical kinship”—especially in the form of becoming an interreligious ally—as one possible paradigm for thinking about the telos of interreligious studies and as a possible organizing principle for emerging interreligious