Christian Belief and Inter-faith Dialogue

Abstract

Dialogue, or discussion, between people of different faiths takes place on various levels and in a variety of contexts. There is, first, discursive theological dialogue, concerned with the truth-claims of the different religions. But this should always broaden out to include ways of life and forms of art and symbolism, and should involve opportunities to observe or even participate in one another’s religious life at its focal point of worship and contemplation. Here it may begin to pass into a second form of dialogue, the interior dialogue, practiced and reported by such Christian pioneers as the late Père H. le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda) and Dom Bede Griffiths in India. And then, third, there is the more immediately practical dialogue concerned with common human problems and exemplified, for example, by the Buddhist-Christian-Hindu-Jewish-Muslim discussions at Colombo in 1974, whose report is entitled Towards World Community: Resources and Responsibilities for Living Together.