ABSTRACT
The idea and reality of community is central to both Christianity and Islam. Each regards itself as the community of the people of God. At best they may regard each other in a similar vein. Islam sees Christians as a People of the Book; Christianity construes Muslims as being within the same Abrahamic family of faith. The notion of community, though differently manifest in terms of social structure and organisation, is a thread of commonality that has proved an instructive and useful dialogue topic. This featured as the topic of the twelfth Building Bridges Seminar and the ninth meeting of the Christian–Muslim Theological Forum, both of which took place in 2013. This chapter, drawing on these two events, examines Muslim and Christian perspectives on community in relation to motifs and dynamics of identity and purpose, unity in diversity, and context and continuity.
