Interreligious Dialogue

This paper examines the influence of Christianity in the formation of new Buddhism and the reformation agenda of traditional Buddhism during the first half of the twentieth century in
Korea. By new Buddhism, I am specifically referring to Wŏn Buddhism (圓佛敎), established by Sot’aesan Pak Chungbin 少太山朴重彬(1891–1943) in 1916. Since its foundation, Wŏn Buddhism has grown into one of the four major religious groups in South Korea, along with traditional Buddhism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The paper begins by reviewing some of major issues in the Buddhist reform movements and Wŏn Buddhism. It then goes on to detail the formalistic similarities between Wŏn Buddhism and Christianity. The next section examines the visible influences of traditional East Asian religions in Wŏn Buddhism. In its
final part, the paper considers Sot’aesan’s approaches to different religious traditions and the eclectic nature of Wŏn Buddhism as a possible model for an interreligious dialogue, to include Buddhist-Christian dialogue.
Keywords: Wŏn Buddhism, Christianity, new Buddhism, Buddhist reform movements, ecumenism

The article presents the conception of interreligious dialogue developed by Abraham Joshua Heschel in his legendary text No Religion Is an Island. Then, it illustrates the Goshen-Gottstein who takes a step further in his explicating interfaith dialogue. The last part of the article analyses the understanding of Kasimow and Sherwin of the thought and deeds of Pope John Paul II in the field of interreligious dialogue, and especially, in the attitude of the Catholic Church toward Jews.

This book explores the unique usage of pictorial art to undertake interreligious dialogue. It presents a practical guide to help educators learn and teach an effective and enjoyable interreligious dialogue within their academic settings. It offers an alternative to prevailing approaches to interreligious dialogue through its Structured Arts-based Educational Dialogue (SAED). The SAED approach will transform pictorial art into a channel for dialogue through the artwork’s form, content, and subject matter, serving as speaking points in the dialogical process informing the life experiences and religious ideas of the dialogue partners.

Carnival versus Thélème: The Question of ‘Freedom’
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The best vantage point for understanding ‘transgressive sacrality’ as a universal phenomenon is the principle of ‘freedom’ (svātantrya), the central concern of Rabelais (1494–1563), Bakhtin (1895–1975), and Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020).2 The medieval Christian dispensation revolved around the opposition, alternation, and complementarity between the stern, ascetic, otherworldly spiritual ideal of the Church and the periodic extended license of the popular carnival that rejuvenated this world of piety by rendering it topsy-turvy. Through Rabelais—the erudite monk and priest, who embodied the transition to the ‘humanist’ era—the unschooled obscene clamor of the primordial folk and festive marketplace found unvarnished exaggerated expression in early Renaissance literature. No longer capable of appreciating much less endorsing such celebration of the beast in Man, post-Enlightenment critics, severing his essential links with the ‘unofficial’ world of debasing folk humor, had sought to minimize the ‘Rabelaisian’ by reducing its thrust to negative anti-clerical satire or rebuked its capricious author wherever his excesses seemed too gratuitous.3 By rehabilitating carnivalesque laughter as intrinsic, readers, the aspiring new elites, from the surviving oral mass culture (Berrong 52-78).4 Princely Pantagruel himself embodies—especially after meeting the disconcerting Panurge—the values, ideals, temperament and comportment of the Renaissance Man par excellence.
Is ‘aristocratic’ Thélème therefore, pace Bakhtin, a (definitive) repudiation by Rabelais of his own earlier celebration of generalized antinomian license, or rather a (necessary, though guarded) reformulation that permits a better understanding of the presuppositions, parameters, and finality of that elusive ‘liberation’? Juxtaposing the medieval Christian carnival to its still surviving counterpart in the Hindu subcontinent—the traditional excesses of which have not been wholly smothered by the recent cultural passage of its (especially anglophone) elites to Westernizing modernity—may allow us to propose a more dialectical understanding of how such (systemic and not only carnivalesque) transgression could culminate in (inner) spiritual freedom.

Ubuntu is an African moral force and worldview that has held its primal societies peacefully together. It is interesting to observe that contemporary awareness of this concept in scholarship particularly associates Ubuntu with potentials to inspire global dialogue and peace efforts aimed at achieving harmonious human coexistence. Surprisingly though, this irenic dimension of Ubuntu has not received any systematic discourse as the literature on the concept shows. Accordingly, employing the human relations approach, this chapter draws on the pervasive literature on the intersections of Ubuntu and dialogue and particularly explores the intrinsic dialogic dimensions of Ubuntu for global peacebuilding efforts. Its basic presupposition is that the emphasis placed on the value of human relationship and peaceful coexistence by both concepts not only requires a systematic discourse, but also shows that indigenous cultural resources are available and viable for local and global conflict resolution efforts.

By the turn of the last century, secular political order had become so deeply rooted in the western societies that few would have predicted the return of religion as a socio-political force in today's globalised world. However, it must be stressed that this religious revival came with a high price. Religion is increasingly seen as an irrational reactionary force nurturing fanaticism, conflict and violence and therefore a threat to world peace. Historically, in the West, this fear of religion has led the modern secular consciousness to largely confine faith to the category of individualistic moral piety. The prophetic call for observing justice in all aspects of life that defines the heart of monotheistic faith traditions has been largely ignored. Unfortunately, even within contemporary sister faith traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the significance of this prophetic voice of social ethics and just living tend to be less vocal. The book under review offers an unparalleled insight into this critical prophetic message of upholding justice and respect for human dignity embedded within the Abrahamic faiths. The author discerns this creative monotheistic impulse of critical faithfulness by offering an impressive intertextual reading that enables the sacred discourses of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and the Qur'an to engage in a meaningful conversation, thus illustrating the intertwined nature of their core message to humanity.

The Orthodox Church celebrated in Crete (2016) the  "Holy and Great Council" in which a renewed and holistic approach on mission and evangelism was confirmed, in accordance to the challenges of the modern pluralistic and globalized societies. The Council declared solemnly that the mission is in the first place the proclamation in history of the eschaton, which in its turn is a visible sign of and a participation in the Kingdom of God. Mission reflects God’s hypostasis – the way in He exists as a perfect unity and communion of Persons. Along with this theological truth, the Church embraces the sacrificial and diaconal ethos of Christ who reconciled in Himself the whole human gender, which implies that the »others« and »those outside« are partners, and not simply objects, of the evangelism. Such universal breath of the missio Dei means that the gifts that He offered to humanity (peace, justice, righteousness) need the human synergy and the collaboration between the Orthodox and the faithful of different church traditions and religions, and even with all "people of good will".

Why should Christians engage in interfaith dialogue with Muslims? Does Islam have anything to offer Christians? What is Islamophobia, and what should we do about it?

These are just some of the questions addressed in Finding Jesus among Muslims, an urgent new book from author Jordan Denari Duffner. Drawing from church teaching, the stories of saints and martyrs, and her extensive personal experiences living among Muslims in both the United States and the Middle East, Duffner explains why all Christians are called to participate in interreligious dialogue, especially with Muslims. Her intelligent and fresh approach makes Duffner a welcome voice on some of the most important social and religious questions of our day.

In this world, where there is a lot of difference and multitude, it is important not just to celebrate plurality, but also to make sure that the voices of the powerless and marginalised can be heart. Churches should consider their role model, so that they do not simply confuse themselves in the carnival of postmodernity, but can address their issues. For an analysis of our postmodern times and the question how the voiceless can be heard, postcolonial theories and theologies offer helpful tools...

The article discusses the definition of inculturation of Christianity in the missionary activity of the Roman Catholic Church. With respect to the research methodology of the study of this definition, the author refers directly to the analysis of official documents of the Vatican, namely the declarations and constitutions of The Second Vatican Council and the encyclicals and Apostolic Exhortations of pontiffs of the Catholic Church. Ethno-religious expeditions committed by the author during the period from 2009 to 2015 also became the basis for this article.
В статье рассматривается понятие инкультурации христианства в миссионер- ской деятельности Римско-католической церкви. В отношении методологии исследования понятия инкультурации христианства автор обращается непосредственно к анализу официальных документов Ватикана, а именно к декларациям и конституциям II Ватиканского собора, к энцикликам и апостольским обращениям понтификов католической церкви. Также основой данной статьи стали этнорелигиоведческие экспедиции автора, совершённые в период с 2009 по 2015 гг.

In Jesaja 45 lijkt de profeet hard uit te halen naar de afgodendienaars. Zou je de tekst snel doorlezen, dan lijkt er een polariserend verhaal te worden gebracht. Alsof de Eeuwige Zich in nietsontziende woorden tegen de andere volkeren richt. Nee, dan Zijn eigen mensen-het volk Israël! Maar staan we stil bij de diepere lagen in de tekst, dan ligt dat beeld toch iets genuanceerder.

Deze preek is een uitnodiging om, via de methode van Lectio Divina, tekstueel in de schoenen van de Ander te gaan staan. En zo samen op weg te gaan naar een veelkleurig God die verzoent en verbindt.

The fourth edition of The Christian Theological Tradition provides students with essential theological knowledge of key persons and events of the Bible and the Christian faith, and of Christianity’s multifaceted encounter with Western culture.

Historically arranged, the textbook addresses major theological themes such as revelation, God, Jesus Christ, Creation, salvation, and the church. The textbook deals with the entire Christian tradition from an orientation that is both Catholic and ecumenical, with the fourth edition including expanded coverage of modern Protestant Christianity. The Christian Theological Tradition has been thoroughly revised and updated with nine new or rewritten chapters, including:

• A new section on the reception of the Second Vatican Council, including the pontificate of Pope Francis
• A new treatment of contemporary developments in liberation and environmental theology
• A new examination of the relationship between science and Christianity
• An entirely rewritten treatment of Islam that focuses on the ways in which the Christian tradition has historically understood and responded to Islam
• A new discussion of the “New Atheism,” with theological responses to this influential movement.
• New textboxes on aspects of religious life, such as liturgy, prayer, art, moral teaching, and social institutions, appropriate to given chapters.

With the assistance of images and maps, key words, and recommended reading, this textbook outlines the methods for Christian theology and demonstrates the relevance of the Christian theological tradition for our contemporary world.

This is an ideal resource for students of theology, biblical studies, or religious studies, and anyone wanting an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the Christian theological tradition.

Nous vivons une ère de promotion de la « culture du dialogue ». Dialogue entre les Églises, dialogue entre les religions, dialogue entre les cultures, mais aussi dialogue social… La « culture du dialogue » s'est imposée au sortir de la Seconde Guerre mondiale comme la garante de la paix sociale dans les sociétés occidentales. S'il a toujours été entendu que le dialogue inter-religieux pouvait comprendre plusieurs niveaux, à la fois de rigueur et de convivialité, il semblerait que le plébiscite actuel des médias et des pouvoirs publics aux formes démonstratives de rencontre inter-religieuse produise ses effets sur la « culture du dialogue », en réduisant notamment le dialogue inter-religieux à son aspect social, et en occultant sa portée spirituelle. Le présent volume entend interroger l'histoire du dialogue inter-religieux, en se concentrant sur trois points : le moment de sa genèse, dans les années soixante, ses relations avec l'État dans plusieurs contextes nationaux, et enfin ses opposants.

This research will examine the position of the Christian minority in the Muslim-majority society of Pakistan. There, religious others, in the spur of a moment, become second-class citizens - de facto unequal under the sharia law. As this study is unable to focus on the whole of Pakistan, it targets the Punjab province, which is situated in the center of Pakistan and is sometimes simply called Central Pakistan.



#Pakistan #Christian Persecution in Pakistan #Social and Political status of Christians in Pakistan #Islam #Dhimmi status #Neo-Fundamentalism #Islamization of Pakistan#Blasphemy Law# Christian Mu'allim & Mutakallim#Islamization as political Motif#Militant Jihad#Inclusivism in Islam#Pluralism in Islam#Exclusivism in Islam

The correlation between religion, race, and culture lead to the establishment of human civilisation. Peoples from different background were able to have mutual understanding and develop harmonious society. Primarily, spiritual practices empower this civilisation and create perfect soul. A distinguished scholar named Fethullah Gulen is a leading scholar of his own theories in inter-religious dialogue local and international context. This article aims to discuss on the ideas of Fethullah Gulen especially relates to the interfaith dialogue. This is a qualitative research where it applies literature review as its method and design. The outcome of this research is the thought of Fethullah Gulen in inter-religious dialogue influenced by Said al-Nursi (the leaders of the Turkish-Islamic thinker). The approach of Said and Fethullah highlights element of tolerance and mutual dialogue. Fethullah Gulen movement appears to be more active through education using distinctive mediums of ideas. Abstrak Peradaban umat manusia terbina dengan wujudnya interaksi dalam aspek agama, bangsa dan budaya. Melalui interaksi yang berlangsung, masyarakat dari pelbagai latar belakang akan dapat saling mengenali seterusnya membina persefahaman dalam membangunkan sebuah masyarakat yang harmoni. Asasnya adalah daripada jiwa yang suci yang terhasil dari amalan kerohanian. Berpasak daripada ini, Fethullah Gulen merupakan sarjana yang terkehadapan dari sudut pemikirannya dalam dialog antara agama dalam konteks lokal dan global. Justeru, artikel ini akan membincangkan pemikiran Fethullah Gulen dalam dialog antara agama. Metode kajian adalah bersifat kualitatif melalui kajian kepustakaan dan pendekatan sejarah. Kajian mendapati, pemikiran Fethullah Gulen dalam dialog antara agama sebahagian besarnya terkesan daripada pemikiran tokoh pemikir Islam Turki, Said al-Nursi dalam menekankan pendekatan toleransi dan dialog. Selain itu, pendekatan Gulen khususnya melalui pergerakan Gulen dilihat lebih aktif dalam mengembangkan ideanya menerusi pendidikan dalam pelbagai medium.

While contemporary interfaith movements aim to unite the voices of the multiple faith traditions for confronting injustices and inequities, the emergence of religious extremist groups and multicultural societies pose
challenges arising from the mixing of different religions. Reflecting on Mohandas K. Gandhi’s writings, this paper analyses Gandhi’s vision of heart unity for creating communal harmony among the many religions of India at a time when the forces of fanaticism, bigotry, and hatred are raising their heads. Despite historical and contextual
differences in the time Gandhi lived, his moral and critical approach to religion presents dynamic solutions for salvaging it from dogmatic and violent systems and for situating it in a moral context. His emphasis on the equality of all religions, while grounding himself in Hinduism, presents a model for serious and honest interfaith interactions. His insights on the issues of conversion, the study of scriptures of different religions, interfaith marriages, and parenthood can be experimented with to disrupt the othering of religions different from one’s
own in order to build interreligious relations, with the goal of mutual respect and deep understanding, not simply
tolerance

The meek public reaction to the antisemitic murder of Sarah Halimi is indicative of a public unwillingness to acknowledge the threat of Muslim antisemitism in France.
This is compared to the trial of Jewish historian Georges Bensoussan. This trial shows how the ever more frequent accusation of "islamophobia" is used to intimidate academic critics of Islam. The strategy is now known as "jihad by trial" because it is efficient in silencing criticism even though almost all trials end in acquittals - but the process as such is disruptive for the life and work of the accused.

In this chapter I present two major divergent lines of thought that read European Islam differently, though this difference has hardly been problematised and remarked before, nor has it been put face to face in a scholarly debate. This chapter then presents the views of two major scholars of Islam and Muslims in Europe: those of the French scholar Olivier Roy, and those of the Danish scholar Jørgen S. Nielsen. My own reading of European Islam makes me stand with the latter on his position: European Muslims are making their own theology; it is a pluralist theology in progress. It may even be inspiring to the Arab-Islamic world.

Können Angehörige verschiedener Religionen gemeinsam einen Kultort nutzen? Wie funktionieren interreligiöse Dialoge? In zwei Reden verleiht die Autorin diesen Fragen anhand zweier kaum erforschter Beispiele aus der Spätantike historische Tiefenschärfe.
In der ersten Rede schildert sie das Miteinander von Juden, Heiden und Christen am Abrahamsheiligtum im palästinischen Mamre. In der zweiten analysiert sie die unter dem Titel Acta Archelai überlieferte literarische Auseinandersetzung zwischen Christen und Manichäern. Dabei macht sie die Parallelen, aber auch die Unterschiede zwischen historischen und gegenwärtigen Phänomenen und Problemlagen differenziert sichtbar.
Die Forderung nach Fremdenliebe, aber auch das Schüren von Fremdenangst erscheinen als Konstanten interreligiöser Begegnungen damals und heute.

Between September 2013 and January 2014 I completed a small study of interfaith dialogue in Coventry, a small city in the Midlands region of England using a combination of interviews, participant observation and focus groups. From the data, what becomes apparent is the difficulty of engaging with the wider population. There are committed individuals who work hard running interfaith activities and organisations and the local authority is taking a leading role in supporting these. However, the reach of such work is unclear.

Practitioners speak about pursuing social cohesion through dialogue and the commonalities across religions in terms of shared belief in God and values expressed in texts. Yet, such discourse excludes the growing numbers nationally and locally who appear to be religiously indifferent and uninterested, as well as the actively nonreligious minority. They are not considered. Yet, focus group participants from across the city, both religious and nonreligious, expressed little awareness of interfaith work, or concern with it. This chapter explores this tension against the backdrop of wider sociological research on indifference and social change, youth and religion in Britain, and interfaith dialogue and cohesion. Religious indifference is ambivalent in the religiously ambivalent context of contemporary Britain, with power, relevance, and peaceful coexistence at stake.

In this essay I would like to show how writing history by Jesuits historians changed in the last decades. For many years the Jesuit Historical Institute based in Rome published sources concerning history of this Catholic religious order. The typical and most representative publication of Jesuits historians is Diccionario Historio de la Compania de Jesus. Bibliografico-tematico in 2001. What is characteristic for this kind of historiography is the concentration on facts and limitation of interpretation. More hermeneutical approach toward the history of the order could be seen in publications by John O’Malley, particularly in his First Jesuits and Four Cultures of the West. In both books O’Malley presented the Jesuits more as a cultural phenomenon than as a missionary organization. From the same perspective I wrote the history of the Jesuits in Poland in 1564-1668.

Este ensayo estudia la emergencia de la conciencia ecológica contemporánea a la luz de los descubrimientos científicos y del debate generado en las cumbres internacionales sobre desarrollo sostenible. Sobre este trasfondo histórico, se analiza la reflexión ética y teológica que las diversas problemáticas medioambientales generan en el pensamiento social católico, desde la promulgación de la encíclica Rerum novarum (1891) hasta la reciente encíclica de Francisco, Laudato si’ (2015).
Es un estudio relevante para toda aquella persona interesada en la historia de la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia, así como en el potencial de las tradiciones religiosas para dar respuesta al urgente reto de la sostenibilidad.

Studie se soustředí na problematiku mezikulturního a mezináboženského soužití a zkoumá, co v této oblasti může nabídnout teologie a její pohled na některé podstatné společenské otázky (obavy z proměn společnosti, kulturní a náboženské rozrůzněnosti, migrace). Autorka vymezuje v teologické perspektivě základní pojmy a paradigmata pro interpretaci vztahů mezi různými kulturami (kultura, náboženství, multikulturalita, interkulturalita, dialog) a zkoumá vliv klíčových kategorií křesťanské epistemologie (trojičně-christologická výpověď o transcendenci, práce s reciprocitou a dierencí ve vztahu, kategorie agapé a kenósis) na utváření etických pravidel mezikulturního a mezináboženského dialogu.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, due 2016
Explores the relationship and dialogue between religion and atheism, focusing upon Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and other, e.g. Pagan, traditions in their encounter with secularism and atheism. It explores such issues as faith and reason, science and religion, gender and sexuality, 'texts of terror', and the use and abuse of arguments, evidence, and concepts.

Interfaith groups can be fruitfully interpreted through a Durkheimian framework as moral communities gathered on the basis of shared values and ritualistic discourses. The function of the interfaith society is to generate social solidarity through the invocation of their commonly held sacred values in a variety of modalities that can be considered the “denominations” of the interfaith “religion.” One consequence of understanding interfaith communities in this light is that it deprioritizes questions about the social impact or concrete results of interfaith engagement, as interfaith work becomes less about producing results and more about developing meaningful relationships that are not subject to proof or quantification. Rather than a change agent, interfaith dialogue is actually an emergent form of multi-religious moral community, an enactment of European cosmopolitanism which attracts mostly people who already agree with each other about the value of pluralism. This argument is grounded in ethnographic data on interfaith engagement in Rome, Italy.

Voor het vak Wereldgodsdiensten dienden wij een persoon die een aanhanger is van een andere religie dan het christendom (i.c. de islam, hindoeïsme, boeddhisme of jodendom) te interviewen. Daar ik al een aantal jaar leerkracht protestants- evangelische godsdienst ben en in mijn lessen ook de islam, het jodendom, het hindoeïsme en het boeddhisme bespreek, kende ik reeds de basisprincipes van deze religies. Het leek me leerzaam om verder te kijken dan de basis en ook te peilen naar de persoonlijke motivatie en geloofsbeleving van de gelovige in kwestie. Voor deze opdracht heb ik gekozen om mijn collega leerkracht levensbeschouwing, Tijani Boulaouali te interviewen. Tijani werd in 1973 geboren in Tissalli bij de stad Driouch in Noord-Marokko en bracht er zijn jeugd door. In augustus 1999 emigreerde hij naar Nederland en later ook naar België. Tijani doctoreerde in de Arabische en Islamitische studies aan de KU Leuven, en is daar ook assisterend academisch en onderwijzend personeel aan de Faculteit Theologie en Religiewetenschappen. Zijn specialisaties zijn: religieuze vertaling, koranstudies, islamitische studies en interreligieuze dialoog. Tijani heeft tevens heel wat boeken en artikels op zijn palmares staan. Daarnaast doceert Tijani ook islamitische godsdienst in het secundaire onderwijs in Gent. Voor de sluiting van de scholen hadden we een aantal keer afgesproken om tijdens een gezamenlijk vrij lesuur eens samen te zitten voor dit interview, maar elke keer opnieuw moesten we beiden toezicht overnemen van afwezige leerkrachten. Daarna kwam het virus Covid-19 roet in het eten gooien en was ik helaas verplicht het interview via digitale weg af te leggen.