The Contribution of Interfaith Dialogue toward a Culture of Peace

Abstract

Dialogue among the adherents of the major world religions has always
taken place, especially, but not only, among the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism,
Christianity and Islam. Excellent examples of this may be found in the
midst of shared histories where we are more often presented with a record
of conflicts. The high points must be the enormously rich and creative interactions
which took place in medieval Islamic Spain and southern Italy and
at various times in places as far apart as Central Asia, Baghdad, Delhi,
Cairo and the Ottoman Empire.
As a movement with its institutions and full-time professionals, and
networks of activists, interreligious dialogue is primarily a phenomenon
of the twentieth century. It is the pressures of this century which have
demanded that we mobilize the resources of the great religions for dialogue
and peace, purposes which have historically often seemed marginal.
In India, the realization that a reasonably unified independence would
only be achieved if religions could work together, actually provides a
significant impetus towards the cooperation of religious leaders and
institutions.
The horrors of Nazi genocide in Europe spurred post-war generations
towards a radical review of traditional Christian attitudes towards Judaism.
Out of regional tragedies, like the wars in Lebanon and in the former
Yugoslavia, have come strengthened efforts across the social spectrum to
disarm religious hatreds. The resurgence, in the last couple of decades, of
political radicalism motivated by religion and expressed in religious terms, ...