Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-3, Issue-6, 2017 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 355 Interreligious Marriage: Social and Religious Perspectives Alex Minichele Sewenet 1 , Fasil Merawi Tessagaye 2 & Getnet Tadele (Professor) 3 1 Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University 2 Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Addis Ababa University 3 Professor, Department of Sociology, Adiss Ababa University Abstract: The article crtically examines the existing literature on the social and religious dialogs of one of the hub of social issues in many socities, interreligious marriage. It conceptualizes its meaning from the religious and scientific perspectives and operationalize the various core variables which significantly influence people’s attitude towards the practice. Moreover, the prospects and challenges of interreligious marriage and the stand of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) and Islamic religion perspectives towards the issue has also been explored. Key Words: Interreligious marriage (IRM), attitude, Islam, the Ethiopian Orthdox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) 1. Introduction Religion is a dominant social institution which affects every spheres of human life. It is inexorably interwoven with the family, polity, economy, education, and other social institutions of the society. In any society, religion determines people’s day to day life and we hardly find a phenomenon which is totally out of its domain. Marriage norms, food habits, dressing customs, festivities, politics, and people’s way of adaptation to their environment are some among others which are influenced by religion [25]. Marriage is a cultural universal. It exists in every society with varying forms. It is also the basic reason for the perpetuation and continuity of society and generation. Furthermore, marriage is “subject to the reciprocal influences of social, cultural, and political forces” [25]. These forces collectively constitute conduct norms. According to Sellin, conduct norms are guides that regulate the behaviors of people by delimiting boundary between right and wrong [5]. In religious societies, religion predominate the composition of conduct norms and serves as a pertinent criterion in regulating not only marriage but also much of the behaviors of people [25]. In most of these societies, the marriage norm commence people to practice religious endogamy at the expense of exogamy [20]. The meanings of endogamy and exogamy are not straightforward as they appear. Their usage varies from one social group to the other. They can have broader or specific meanings depending on the context of their usage. In some societies, in- group marriage (endogamy) may connote marriage within ethnic group regardless of religious differences of individuals. In other cases, endogamy can have detail meaning to the extent of considering many similarities (religion, ethnicity, language, etc.) of the husband and the wife [18]. Due to such ambiguities, experts in the area have preferred the use of specific terminologies that can possibly describe the precise status of the husband and wife like intercultural marriage, inter-ethnic marriage, interracial marriage, interreligious marriage, same faith marriage, and homogamy. Intercultural marriage is a very broad concept which embraces inter-ethnic or interreligious marriages. Religious and ethnic intermarriage are single dimensions of intercultural marriage. Intercultural marriage refers to the marriage between persons of two different cultural backgrounds. It may involve difference in country, language, religion, race, ethnicity, political ideology, dressing styles, food customs, living styles, etc. Inter-culturally married spouses have extreme differences and the challenges associated with it are by far complex and intertwined compared to inter-ethnic and inter-religious marriages [33]. Interreligious marriage which is also called mixed religious marriage, religious exogamy, and interfaith marriage implies “a marriage between persons of differing religions”. It is a form of intermarriage and a “type of interaction between religious groups, sub-societies, or societies” [9]. Such practice is as old as the origin of different religions. It, therefore, reveales the degree of integration and social distance among people from different religious groups [7, 14, 35]. Social distance