Interfaith Dialog is a specific type of interaction between religious and/or spiritual groups intended to build bridges and foster understanding between religious groups. The terms “interreligious dialog” and “interchurch dialog” often refer to the same process. Interfaith Dialog is intentionally more inclusive in that it can refer to dialogs within a religion (i.e., intrachurch dialog) or between religious groups (dialogs between sects or denominations). Dialog between and within religious groups can occur on multiple levels of communication ranging from the individual level to the institutional level where a designated spokesperson represents beliefs held by the group. As the size of the groups engaged in dialog increases so does the risk that political motivations will impede understanding of the other’s position (Magonet 2003). For this reason, the essential purpose of interfaith dialog is to understand and respect the other individual or group’s faith as they experience it.
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Hoffman, L., Thelen, M. (2020). Interfaith Dialog. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_809
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