Tag: identity
Choice and Safety: Required Ingredients for Interfaith Progress
Classic “contact theory” predicts that diverse societies automatically bring about tolerance. I argued against this idea here when I discussed how proximity generally exacerbates the anxiety of di... Read More
Romantic Distance vs. Vexing Proximity: the difficulty of real up-close interfaith encounters
My research on interreligious dialogue and engagement has reinforced an old cliché: absence makes the heart grow fonder. When two people are distant from each other, it is easy to idealize each other... Read More
On Irreconcilable Differences: My Interreligious Dialogue with Mormon Missionaries
Since I’m conducting field research on interfaith dialogue in Rome, I thought it would be an important part of my participant-observation to embark upon a dialogue. I met some Mormon sisters conduct... Read More
Pluralismo Vivo: The Interfaith Roads of Rome
It’s not easy to find clear examples of “interreligious violence” in Rome. The closest thing Rome suffers to religious violence are distant shrieks from ISIS across the Mediterranean Sea... Read More
Family, Like Faith, Is What You Make It
I have launched a campaign to have all of my loved ones move to New York City. Ideally, they’ll all move to Queens (one of the most diverse counties in the country!), but I’ll take any borough rea... Read More
What Can Interfaith Dialogue Really Do? Part 3 of 3
Read Part I here, and Part II here. When I ate lunch with the rabbi he inveighed against interfaith dialogue and its inability to reach or transform the minds of those who are closed to dialogue. He s... Read More
What Can Interfaith Dialogue Really Do? Part 2 of 3
Read Part I here. At lunch after Purim, I heard the rabbi criticize interfaith projects for being “just another religious group.” I reflected on the irony of a religious clergy person dismissing t... Read More
Interfaith Dialogue and Identity Formation
Interfaith dialogue is of increasing importance on a daily basis in our current international social, political and economic order. This can be seen in the current interfaith groups that are gathering... Read More