I have been working on a couple of articles. One of them I decided to remove a large section. I will include it here. Most of it comes from parts of my books on on Interreligious Dialoge and Theology of Mission (using some of the work of David Hesselgrave, Stephen Bevans, and Paul Hiebert). Theology …
Category: dialogue
My (Tentative) Rules of Interreligious Dialogue
I was starting to develop a list of rules of IRD by applying Grounded Theory Analysis to several other lists developed by others. I completed the first step (Open Coding) and got a ways into the Axial Coding. However, I sort of lost steam at that point and so I came up with a list …
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My Rules of Interreligious Dialogue Project
I have been teaching Inter-religious Dialogue (IRD) for several years now. While teaching it, I teach several different list of "rules" associated with IRD. However, the one I tend to focus on is the 7 Rules compiled by Max Warren. But as I have been thinking about it, it occurred to me that I should …
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Reasons for an Evangelist to Take IRD Seriously
Inter-religious Dialogue (IRD) is often looked at critically, or straight-up negatively by Evangelicals. I teach a course called “Dialogue with Asian Faiths” and for me, I take the title seriously. It is about dialogue (two-way) conversation with people of other faiths--- especially the great world religions that have their origin in Asia (which is pretty …
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Better than “I Don’t Know.”
I like to tell people that my favorite answer to questions, "I don't know." And I think that is a good answer. -It is honest. No one knows everything and no one knows as much as we think we do. -It leads to discussion. Giving a direct answer often ends conversation, or leads to argument. …
Inter-Theological Dialogue (ITD). To Love or to Loathe?
I saw an interesting little poll that was put on a Philippine Pastors Group. I can't find the poll on a quick search right now but the question was something like: WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU MEET A PASTOR OF A DIFFERENT THEOLOGY? Since no two people on earth have ever had exactly identical …
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Men of NO Ideas
One of my favorite essays is "Men of One Idea." It was written by Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881). Some sources say it was written by Timothy Titcomb. However, that was his pseudonym. I have a copy of the essay in the Union Sixth Reader, a book published in 1862. Long have I sought an electronic …
Dialogue with Bad History
Teaching a class on Dialogue with Asian Religions, a question was brought up by one of the students (one raised as a Christian in a country where Christians are most definitely a minority faith). How does one effectively have dialogue (and possibly evangelizing) with someone who is focused on bad history with other Christians, or …
Religion from God, Man, or Satan?
This image above is considering where other religions come from. (from Sir Norman Anderson). Some people believe they come from God. If that is true then other religions are a Preparation for the Gospel. Other people believe they come from Satan. If that is true, then other religions are a trap, snare, and distraction. Others …
Offending for Good Reason
Darrel Whiteman says that one of three reasons for good contextualization is to "Offend for the Right Reason." After all, Paul noted that the Gospel message is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews. Yet at the same time, Paul did try to make the Gospel message palatable or adorned for …