Love in Religion. Initial Project: Identifying the Frontier Areas

The project aims to identify the ‘frontier’ areas and issues for research on the place of love in religion, bearing in mind the big question, ‘what grounds are there for thinking that love, in religious consciousness and practice today, is the ultimate reality of the universe?’ This investigation is necessary in view of three major developments that have not yet been given due weight in the study of love: first, the appeal of Muslim scholars to love of God and love of neighbour as common ground for inter-faith cooperation, as evidenced in the open letter, "A Common Word"; second, the potential for using advances in recent neuroscience to understand the importance of love in human development within a general evolutionary picture; and third, a new convergence between continental and Anglo-American philosophy in conceiving of love as a kind of knowledge. The project is unique in setting all this in a pluralist faith context, focusing at this stage on dialogue between Christians and Muslims and seeking resources for answering the ‘big question’ in both traditions. The main activity of the initial project will be an international Colloquium designed to identify the key issues, supported by a smaller colloquium on the link between neuroscience and love, a literature review, engagement with the ‘everyday theology’ of local religious communities through the medium of a liturgy, and a lecture series. Concrete outputs delivered will be 15 short papers presented by participants in the Colloquium, a report assessing its results, a literature review, three scholarly articles, the liturgy text, and a proposal for the next stage of the project. Even at this initial stage of identifying issues, this integrated programme will make an impact on methodology in the area generally, alerting researchers to the developments cited above, and encouraging scholars of different faiths – especially Islam and Christianity – to make joint discoveries in the nature of love.