Interfaith

difficult to filter out in the face of pluralism. When considering pluralism, it is also important to consider the country’s religions demographics, and the intentions of various religious groups in their involvement in the interfaith movement. This is especially important in a country where over 220 million people identify as Christian. It’s true that some American religious institutions will become involved because they feel compelled to deepen their understanding of and respect for religions other than their own. However, others may be entering into interfaith dialogue with a predetermined “agenda” based in their own beliefs. Lynne Thompson, a Christian writer for Focus on the Family, wrote an article that responds specifically to Eboo Patel’s interfaith movement from a Christian perspective. Thompson discusses that despite the growing popularity of pluralism, the idea has been met with controversy in some Christian churches. Some would argue that pluralism goes against Christian beliefs, as they see it as disregarding the belief that Jesus is the “one way” to Heaven. This conflict of beliefs could prevent a large percentage of the Christian population in America from participating in pluralism. On the other hand, some Christians are very open to the idea of interfaith dialogue. However, this willingness likely stems from Christians seeing pluralism as an opportunity to evangelize rather than the desire for unity of religions. In her article, Thompson quotes a pastor, “If…

Couples Counseling with Interfaith Clients The United States is seeing an increase of interfaith marriages, and religious beliefs have a powerful effect on marriage. Interfaith, which involves different religious beliefs between a couple, are considered to be heterogeneous, or different. While there is greater tolerance in communities for interfaith marriages, religiosity still affects marital satisfaction. “Problems can arise when one partner explicitly or implicitly values his or her culture…

Friendship and Hope: Hospitality and New Solidarity Doing theology comparatively together is inviting us to live with the avoidable tension between “the commitment to the Christian tradition” and “openness to the truths of non-Christian religions.” The tension creates a double commitment when doing theology comparatively. We need to go beyond religious tolerance to take the steps interreligious engagement in order to build a deeper interreligious friendship and bring new hope in hospitality…

H. Edward Pruitt starts 100 Years of Theological Convergence: Edinburgh 1910 to Lausanne 2010 with an introduction. In this introduction, he starts off with his thesis; “This thesis argues that a theological convergence developed out of the ecumenism that existed within the Edinburgh 1910 Global Missions Conference, and that this ecumenism grew from Edinburg 1910 until the Lausanne Movement that began in 1974, at which point it began to flourish” (Pruitt 5). He then defines some terms and lists…

This week is Interfaith Week, a period of celebrating integration, promoting acceptance and understanding, but within the last two weeks the world has exposed a much bleaker depiction in relation to our level of acceptance. There has been excessive discontent in the world with the recent Paris attacks and thus rising anti-Islamic mentality. There have been attacks from Glasgow to the small region of Fife, where in Methil, 15 men attacked a Muslim couple who owned a shop. Giving these current…

Interfaith dialogue refers to the complaisant, beneficial and progressive interaction at both the individual and institutional levels between people of different religious beliefs. The aim of the interfaith dialogue initiatives in multi-faith Australia is to develop a greater mutual understanding between different religious traditions, and so far it has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the broader religious landscape in Australia. As stated in the purpose of the National Council of…

Ruth Braunstein (2017) was interested in studying “how members of interfaith and the patriots imagined and enacted their roles as active citizens” (23). This book focused on these two opposing groups: Interfaith group, a diverse organization for people with different religious faith and social background; and the patriots, a group of tea party activists which contains mostly white middle class and religious conservatives. Interfaith group is a coalition of diversity that, instead of focusing on…

1) INTERFAITH DIALOGUE 1.1) What Is the Importance of Interfaith Dialogue? We are in modernizing and globalizing society with numerous race, culture and faith. In the past until now, religion had been used as engine of conflict and violence. Humanity is faced with common enormous social & environmental challenges. Faith and morality is side-lined in the development of social structures and quest for solutions. Therefore, it is very important that people should respect each other religion to…

An interfaith couple from Wisconsin sued a hotel owner in Illinois for allegedly refusing their Christian-Jewish wedding on the grounds that the ceremony was not religious. Alexandra Katzman and Jonathan Webber, who got engaged at Bernadine’s Stillman Inn, filed a discrimination charge against hotel owner Dave Anderson with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The interfaith couple had paid a deposit for their non-religious wedding this month, but the owner later said only Christian services…

The Brookings Interfaith Dialogue was a great experience that has furthered my comprehension of multiple religions, as well as introduced me to a brand-new religion (An NRM, to be exact). The evening was filled with short stories, tales and general bits of wisdom from religions like Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Baha’i since the theme of the night was “Favorite Fables” At first glance, the room appeared very diverse which is something that I was expecting. There seemed to be people of a…