ipl-logo

Examples Of Interreligious Dialogue

823 Words4 Pages

1. Interreligious Dialogue
“Interreligious dialogue is a meeting of heart and mind between followers of various religions. It is communication between two believers at the religious level.” Interreligious dialogue is a great initiative to settle the grounds of conflict not by removing all that which contradicts rather, it allows different religious traditions to have an open encounter with other religions, having the opportunity to compare each other’s beliefs from an insider’s perspective and not merely basing on what others say about them. This is essential so that the truth that each faith claims is the real truth that they really bear. Interreligious dialogue requires that the participants should bear the mental attitudes of “respect, …show more content…

Before a genuine dialogue begins, each religion must first set aside their exclusivist attitudes- but not setting aside all their beliefs- and be open to what others believe and through this, each religion will not only understand the faith of others but they can also have a deeper understanding of their faith. They must recognize the fact that their dissimilarities has rooted in their differences of culture which contributed in their differences of accepting, understanding and interpreting God’s revelation, they must recognize the fact that “in our less-than-perfect world even the religious community inspired by belief in the incarnate Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit remains far from the state of eschatological perfection”. Since these revealed religions are works, not only of God but also of man, one religion cannot be identified as the only source of truth. The researcher has stated earlier in this chapter the special case of Christianity- due to the fact that the unfathomable God was made known through his son Jesus Christ. It is for this reason, the researcher contends, that the Church is the main advocator of interreligious dialogue; it might seem that this is an exclusivist claim but the researcher does not aim in stressing the primacy of Christianity. He only aims at pointing out that since Christianity had a closer grasp of the truth- since the Son of God proclaimed it- Christianity might help other religions in understanding better their beliefs. The paper contends that it is due to man’s constrained knowledge that the Semitic religions approach God differently. However, since Christianity though not absolutely perfect, had a closer grasp of

Open Document