The paper addresses the question of deve

lopmental-stylistic preconditions for the capacity of dealing with religious

diversity. Based upon the author’s previous typological por

trayal of inter-personal and inter-religious negotiation

styles – which have emerged from a cr

itical divergence from, and a construc

tive modification of, Fowler’s faith

development theory –, the paper presents both further conceptual clarification, but, perhaps even more importantly,

new empirical evidence. For conceptual

clarification, prominence is given to

philosophical reflections on the relation

to the Other, the Strange (xenosophy) and its consequences

for inter-religious dialog. Em

pirical evidence is based on

questionnaire data and faith development

interviews from a large sample of re

search participants from Germany and

the USA. The conceptual clar

ification and the empirical evidence for the

profile of inter-religi

ous negotiation styles

and their arrangement in a developmenta

l model finally leads to

conclusions about the chances of nurturing capacities

needed for dealing with religious diversity in th

e classroom communication in

religious education.