"During the last two decades, in the U.S.-American academy of religion and theology, comparative theology as the dialogical and theologically conscious study of religions has evolved as new and quickly developing field of research and scholarship. Scholars have produced an increasing number of studies that either the authors or others have identified explicitly as “comparative theology,” new scientific communities have been formed, and postgraduate study and research programs have been established at high and lower ranking universities. In Europe, with a few exceptions, this thriving scholarship and development so far has received little attention and had little impact on its academy of theology and religion. Moreover, no one, has yet attempted to either define the new discipline in such a way as to situate all this recent work within a coherent structure and encompassing description, or to introduce the new discipline and research field, with its methods and achievements, comprehensively to the European academic study of theology and religion. The purpose of this 4-year long research project hosted by Trinity College Dublin is therefore (1) to set-up a research group comprising junior and senior scholars to (2) carry out in-depth research on the works of certain key authors in Anglo-American comparativ theology; (3) to write an introduction to it and to elaborate a 2-volume handbook on it along an integrated framework of models, methods and case studies, so to situate all this recent Anglo-American scholarship in comparative theology and to allow for adding further research, both by U.S. comparative theologians and European scholars critically engaging in comparative scholarship. (4) The collaborative process will be facilitated and enhanced by international expert seminars and intensive educational programs (IPs) for postgraduate research students. (5) Finally, a new European Thematic Network for Comparative Theology will be launched."