Interreligious dialogue: Ecumenical engagement in interfaith action

Abstract

This chapter is an exploration of some background, initial impetus and rationales whereby the Christian Church is engaged in interreligious dialogue. There is emphasis on the central agencies of the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church. Particular attention is also given to the various models of dialogue that have emerged. The author proposes that in and through this comparative study the contours of an ecumenical Christian stance towards – and an engagement in – interreligious dialogue should emerge. He concludes that people of different religions, in pursuit of dialogical relationship one with another, nowadays have the possibility of transcending past histories of combative clash in favour of a future marked increasingly by co-operative engagement: faith can make things better.