Pastor Stig Lindberg, stigberg1@icloud.com, APA Nonmember, Minister, Universal Life Church Monastery
The quest for interfaith harmony is as old as religion itself and never more urgent. As sectarianism continues to be exploited by those seeking division and strife, the time is ripe for civil society to take the lead in fostering greater mutual understanding. Too often, religious association takes on the attributes of identity politics, creating a hostile “we versus them” mentality. By viewing religion inductively (from bottom-up) as a common and deep-seated human enterprise/response (i.e., “science of religion” or “psychology of religion”) instead of deductively (from top-down) as a perfect and final (i.e., static) divine mandate, adherents will be better able to engage in respectful dialogue. It is when this starting point is dismissed as apostate humanism that seemingly intractable obstacles to dialogue emerge. There are at least eight factors identified below which influence a religion’s readiness to engage in interfaith dialogue. I hope to address from a (Protestant) Christian perspective as many of them as time permits and engage in dialogue with my panel colleagues. Unquestionably a father of modern-day interconfessional (within Christianity) dialogue, Desiderius Erasmus serves as an illuminating resource for broader interfaith discussions. Another Christian leader of interreligious dialogue, famed philosopher and theologian Raimundo Pannikar, serves as another resource. Beyond these two leading figures, however, efforts will be made to consider mechanisms for enhanced dialogue.
