"Interreligious understanding is an essential condition for ensuring peace in our contemporary world," or so Louise Gramstrup argued during an international conference at the University of Navarra entitled, "The Abrahamic religions and interfaith relations in the past and present," which the Religion and Civil Society project of the Institute for Culture and Society organized.

Gramstrup, a religious studies researcher at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), further argued that, "With an increasing global world where people from across religious traditions and cultures interact on a daily basis, interreligious understanding becomes all the more pertinent. Specifically, interreligious understanding can dismantle stereotypes, prejudices, and unfounded fear of religious others, and thereby ultimately break down barriers and so ensure peaceful relations between people of different religious traditions."

This understanding, as she highlighted, "might be too ambitious a task," but she believes it is possible. "It all starts with providing spaces where people from different religious traditions (and none) can meet… Understanding can flourish as long as everyone involved is willing to listen to one another and share their thoughts."

Understanding and respecting difference

The University of Edinburgh scholar argued that it is precisely interreligious initiatives, on the micro level (individual or group), that can help build strong communities and connect neighbors. In this sense, she notes that therein people get to know each other personally and "strong cross-religious relationships are formed, which is crucial especially when fear of religious others is prevalent."

She also added that, in encounters on this level, "people belonging to different religious traditions can become each other's religious allies," which contributes to stronger social harmony in communities. "Usually when people participate in a formalized interreligious encounter, they discover how they share fundamental values despite belonging to different religious traditions. Hence, similarities form the basis for genuinely trying to understand and respect differences."

Following a MA (Honours) in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh (2012) and a M.St. in Women's Studies at the University of Oxford (2013), Louise Gramstrup is currently completing her PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Its focus is the processes of sameness and difference taking place within the American women's interfaith book group, Daughters of Abraham; a group located in the Greater Boston Area. The influence of such processes on individual understanding of religious self and other is examined. Key research interests are: interreligious relations, the Abrahamic religions, religion and gender.

Louise Gramstrup was among 30 researchers from universities in 18 different countries that discussed interfaith dialogue between Christianity, Islam and Judaism at a conference entitled, "The Abrahamic religions and interfaith relations in the past and present."

The conference gathered specialists in fields such as the social sciences, history, philosophy and the humanities, who presented research that sheds light on how to achieve better understanding between the Abrahamic religions.

Speakers included Monawar Hussain, a Muslim Imam and advisor to the Hospitals NHS Trust at the University of Oxford (UK), Carlos Eire, a professor of history and religious studies at Yale University (USA), James Conroy, Vice Chancellor for Internationalization at the University of Glasgow (UK) and a professor of religious and philosophical education, and Tania ap Siôn, Deputy Director of the St. Mary Research Center in Wales and research fellow within the Research Group on Religion and Education at the University of Warwick (UK).