Okay, maybe you see this, or maybe you don't... but my FB friends often put up things like: ---"I am not a supporter of <a particular political figure>, but...." and then goes into a long spiel fawning over that same political figure. The praise is so lacking in balance or reflection that it is all …
Tag: interfaith dialogue
782AD 1st Millennium Missions History. Interfaith Dialogue
Patriarch Timothy I lived from around 740AD to 823AD. For a little over half of his life he served as Patriarch of the Church of the East (780 - 823). Supposedly, in 782 he had a discussion of religion with Caliph Al-Mahdi (reigning 775-785). In some ways this appears to be the earliest (or at …
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It is Never JUST CAKE. An Inter-religious Reflection
Many years ago, before I went into Missions... I worked at a manufacturing firm as a mechanical engineer. I had a friend who was JW (a member of the Jehovah's Witness faith). He had tried to convert me--- he was a Pioneer, which meant that he was supposed to commit a certain number of hours …
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Sympathizing With Religious People To Whom You Can’t (Fully) Relate
I am going to be talking about sympathizing with people who are going through religious or moral crises that I cannot fully relate to. There are many other parallels that relate to gender, race, nationality, and more. These others are important... perhaps more important. But I am teaching a class in inter-religious dialogue right now …
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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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Is Dialogue Contradictory to Evangelism?
Dialogue is in contradiction to Evangelism. Or is it? Dialogue is generally thought of as conversation between two equals (certainly equals in terms of roles in conversation) so as to achieve mutual understanding. As such it is not driven by a desire to coerce another, or change another's mind. From this standpoint, it is certainly …
How to Keep Them Talking???
I was looking at a blog of one of my favorite Asian theologians. His blog is on Patheos. Patheos appears to be a webspace that allows bloggers (especially theological or religious) to reside. I am not sure if they allow the bloggers to be monetized, but there are an awful lot of advertisements. Much of …
Reflection on Interreligious Dialogue Class
Background. I was teaching a class on Dialogue with Asian Religions at seminary. One day, one of my students, a Muslim Background Believer, came to me and asked whether he could teach a couple of class hours on Islam. I was rather relieved by this. Islam is not a religion that interests me particularly, but …
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Chapter 5. Models of IRD (part 2)
<Continued from previous post> “Poles” of Interreligious Dialogue Harvie Cox has noted that interreligious dialogue must address two elements that exist between two different religions or faiths. These are the universalistic elements and the particularistic elements. Religions address universal human concerns and questions. Not only do they address common concerns, often they come up with …