ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a comparative theology class for 'Theological Inquiry', a foundations-level core area that takes an existential approach to religious thought and practice, emphasizing foundational questions as they are embedded in religious communities of thought and practice. It discusses both the openness and boundedness of comparative theology through a dynamic interplay between religious texts on fundamental questions, examines how traditions formulate questions and answers both similarly and differently and analyzes religious inquiry to student's own ultimate questioning. The chapter focuses on comparative theology be an important practice for learning to see irreducible differences as essential to friendship, dialogue, and religion. An intersectional approach in the comparative theology classroom would undermine 'commonsense' notions of fixed religious boundaries without eradicating the significance of religion or religious boundaries. Yet even as an intersectional approach that sees the complex ways racial formation occurs in relation to class, gender, sexuality, and more, it does not eradicate the significance of race or critical race analysis.
