CENTRO PRO UNIONE N.24 -Fall 1983bi-annual Bulletin In this issue: AN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF ECUMENICAL RESEARCH CENTERS AND PUBLICATIONS (1983 UPDAT�) Additions ........................ · ..... . p. Con:ections, Deletions, Substitutions ........ ,, The Dialogue Decalogue: Ground Rules for Interreligious Dialogue, by Leonard Swidler ..................... . ,, Recent Materials received by the Centro Pro Unione in the Area of Ecumenics ......... . ,, Centro Pro Unione -Via S. Maria dell'Anim�, 30 -00186 Rome, Italy 3 4 7 10 THE DIALOGUE DECALOGUE: GROUND RULES FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE by Leonard Swidler - Dialogue is a conversation on a common subject between two or more persons with differing views, the primary purpose of which is for each participant t_o learn from the other so that he or she can change and grc f w'. This very defini tion of dialogue embodies the first commandment of dialogue, as will be expanded below. ·In the religious sphere in the past, we came together to discuss with those differing with us, for example, Catholics with Protestants, either to defeat an opponent, or to learn about an opponent so as to deal more effectively with him or her, or at best to negotiate with him or her. If we faced each other at all, it was in confrontation -sometimes more openly polemically, sometimes more subtly so, but always with the ultimate goal of defeating the other, becatise we were convinced that we alone had the absolute truth. But that is not what dialogue is. Dialogue is not debate. In dialogue each partner must listen to the other as openly and sympathetically as he or she can in an attempt to understand the other's position as precisely and, as it were, as much from within, as possible. Such an attitude automatically includes the assumption that at any point we might find the partner's position so persuasive that, if we would act with integrity, we would have to change, and change can be disturbing. · We are here, of course, speaking of a specific kind of dialogue, an inteirelig ious dialogue. To have such, it is not sufficient that the dialogue partnetS discuss a religious subject. Rathir, they must come to the dialogue as persons somehow significantly identified with a religious community. If I were neither a Jew nor a Muslim nor a Christian, for exampte, I could not participate as a "partner" in a Jewish-Christian-Muslim interreligious dialogue, though I might listen in, ask some questions for information, and make some helpful comments. It is obvious that interreligio · us dialogue is something new under the sun. We could not conceive of it, let alone do it in the past. How, the·n, C:an we effec tively engage in this new thing? The following are some basic ground rules, or "commandments," of interreligious dialogue that must be observed if dialogue is actually to take place. These are not theoretical rule · s, or commandments given from "on high," but ones that have been learned from hard experience. FIRST COMMANDMENT: The primary purpose of· dialogue is to change and grow in , the perception and understanding of reality �nd then to act accordingly. Mini mally, the very fact that I learn that my dialogue partner believes ."this" rather than "that" proportionally changes my attitude toward · her;· and a change in my attitude is a significant change in me. We enter into dia:1ogue so that we can learn, change, and grow, not so we can force change on the other, as one hop·es to do in d"ebate -a hope which is realized in inverse proportion to the frequency and ferocity with which debate is entered ·into. On the 0th.er hand, because ·in dialogue each partner comes with the intention of learning gnd changing herself,' one's partner in fact will also change. Thus the alleged goa.l of debate, and much more, is accomplished far more effectively by dialogue. SECOND COMMANDMENT: Interreligious dialogue must be a two-sided project - within eaeh retigious community and between religious· communities. Because of the "corporate" nature of interreligious dialogue_, and since the primary goal of dialogue is that each partner learn and change himself, it is also necessary that each participant enter into dialogue not only with his partner across the faith line -the Lutheran with the Anglican, for exampl_e -but also with his coreligionists, with his fellow Lutherans, to share with them the fruits of the interreligious dialogue. Only thus·can the whole community eventually learn and change, moving toward an ever more perceptive insight into reality. THIRD COMMANDMENT: Each participant ·must come to the dialogue with comptete honesty and sincerity. It should be made clear in what direction the major and minor thrusts of the tradition move, what.the future shifts might be, arid, if necessary, where the participant.has difficulties with her own tradition. No N9 24 / FALL 83 Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione -7 Next >