KAICIID – Beyond Dialogue Series
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Talking Dialogue KAICIID – Beyond Dialogue Series Edited by Patrice Brodeur and Mohammed Abu-Nimer Volume 2 Talking Dialogue Eleven Episodes in the History of the Modern Interreligious Dialogue Movement Edited by Karsten Lehmann In cooperation with Patrice Brodeur ISBN 978-3-11-047292-9 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-052917-3 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-052772-8 DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110529173 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For details go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Library of Congress Control Number: 2020947719 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2021 Karsten Lehmann, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston The book is published open access at www.degruyter.com. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com KAICIID – Beyond Dialogue Series The KAICIID Dialogue Centre is an international intergovernmental organization whose mandate is to promotethe use of interreligious and interculturaldialogue worldwide in order to enhance understanding and cooperation to fosterbetter social cohesion and inclusion as wellastoprevent and transformconflicts to- wards peace and reconciliation. This KAICIID Beyond Dialogue Series is part of the KAICIID Dialogue Knowl- edge Hub, which provides different online toolstoovercomeignorance, stereo- types and prejudice in along term process that aims towards developing asus- tainable cultureofdialogue globally. The KAICIID Beyond Dialogue Series contributes to those general aims by presentingthe results of in-depth dialogues and analyses between different forms of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ involvedinvarious aspects of interreligious dialogue in particular. This series seeks to bring together theoreticians and prac- titioners in the specific field of interreligious dialogue from various regions of the world. An emphasis is placed on increasinginterdisciplinary and cross-sectorial exchanges to bring greater understanding of this growingfield of human activity and knowledge.Based upon cutting-edgeresearch, this series intends to trigger new learning processes and to translate them into applied knowledge to be dis- seminatedbroadly. The three volumes of this closed seriesare: ‒ Vol1:Patrice Brodeur (ed.), Dialogue beyond Dialogue – Perspectives from ‘the outside’ and ‚the inside’. ‒ Vol. 2: Karsten Lehmann (ed.), Talking Dialogue – Eleven Episodes in the His- toryofthe Modern Interreligious Dialogue Movement. ‒ Vol. 3: MohammedAbu-Nimer and Renata Smith (eds.), Improving the Im- pact of Interreligious Dialogue – On the Evaluation of Interreligious Dialogue Activities. OpenAccess. ©2021, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110529173-001 TableofContents Karsten Lehmann Introduction Understandingthe Interreligious Dialogue (IRD) Movement 1 Part 1 First Attempts at Developing Interreligious Dialogue ‘from the Margins’ Maryam Mouzzouri ASymbol forInterreligious Dialogue The Beginning of the Modern Interreligious Dialogue Movement (World’sParliament of Religions/1893) 21 VerenaE.Kozmann Vision, Ambition, and Failure Adolf Allwohn’spractical take on Implementing an early Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue Organization (Religiöser Menschheitsbund/1921–1923) 45 Sana Saeed Mysticism meets Inception Interreligious Dialogue emerging in Great Britain (World Congressof Faiths/1933–1950) 79 Rebecca Loder-Neuhold Transformation from ‘Mission’ to ‘Dialogue’ The World Council of Churches’ Engagement with Jewish People (WCC-Committee on the Church and the Jewish People/1920s– 1970s) 111 VIII TableofContents Part 2 Towards an Increased Activism in CivilSociety Evgeny Khamidov At the Grassroots of Interreligious Dialogue Activities Founding a ‘Spiritual UN’ (Temple of Understanding/1968 – 1972) 151 SemiramisDel Carmen V. Rodríguez An Encounter with Change Opening Perspectives beyond Europe and the US (The International Associationfor Religious Freedom/1969 –1975) 179 Josep-Oriol Guinovart-Pedescoll When Fear becomes Peace Transforming Interreligious Dialogue intoaSocial Movement (World Conference on Religion and Peace/1970 –1973) 203 Part 3 Towards an Increasing SupportbyReligious Hierarchies Jana Philippa Parenti From aHistorical Event to aModern Institution Interreligious Dialogue and Global ‘Critical Issues’ (Council for a Parliament of the World’sReligions/1989 –1993) 233 María Bargo ACentrefor Cooperation Uniting Interreligious Dialogue Efforts (Oxford International Interfaith Centre/1993 –2017) 275 Sara Singha Search forInclusive Language ANew StageofAwarenessInside the Interreligious Dialogue Movement (United Religions Initiative/2000 –2006) 299 Minjung Noh Implementing Interreligious Dialogue ASolutionfor International Challenges? (Universal PeaceFederation / 2005 –2009) 327 TableofContents IX Karsten Lehmann/Patrice Brodeur Final Remarks Insights into the InterdisciplinaryField of the Study of Interreligious Dialogue 353 List of Authors 371 Index 375 KarstenLehmann Introduction Understanding the Interreligious Dialogue (IRD) Movement 1Introduction: Refocusing the Perspective on IRD The last two decades have seen adynamic increase in the number of activities that are explicitlylinked to the notion of interreligious dialogue (IRD). All over the world, empirical research projects underlinethe establishment of highly complex local scenes of these types of initiatives.¹ Especiallyatthe national level, it is possible to identify asignificant increase in dialogue organizations – either basedupon state initiativesorthe input of religious authorities.² And in the course of these developments, interreligious dialogue has become asignifi- cant topic on the international political agenda, too. It is no longer restricted to some expertsofreligiouslyaffiliatednon-governmental organizations (NGOs). IRD has also been put on the agenda of heads of state, as well as intergovern- mental organizations.³ Jü rgen Micksch and Ingrid Hoensch Hoensch, Miteinander vor Ort: kommunale Islamforen (Berlin: EB-Verlag,2011); Council of Europe, ed., Gods in the City:Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue at Local Level (Strasbourg:Council of Europe, 2007). Delphine Dussert-Galinat, Le Dialogue Interreligieux:Entre Discours Officiels et Initiatives Lo- cales (Rennes:PressesUniversitaires de Rennes,2013); Gritt Klinkhammer, Interreligiö se und in- terkulturelle Dialoge mit MuslimInnen in Deutschland:Eine Quantitativeund QualitativeStudie (Bremen /Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag,2011); Ina Merdjanovaand PatriceBrodeur, ReligionasaCon- versation Starter:Interreligious Dialogue for Peacebuilding in the Balkans (London Gordonsville: Continuum International PublishingGroup, 2011). Katherine Marshall, Global InstitutionsofReligion: Ancient Movers,Modern Shakers (London / New York: Routledge,2013); Karsten Lehmann, “Construction of the Concept of Religion in the United Nations’ General Assembly: From Human Rights to Dialogueand Harmony,” in Handbook of the Changing WorldLanguage Map,eds.Stanley D. Brunn and Roland Kehrein, (Basel, Swit- zerland: Springer NatureSwitzerland AG,2018): 1–16;Karsten Lehmann, “Intereligious Dialogue (IRD) in international politics:From the Margins of the religious Field to the Center of Civil So- ciety,” in TheRoutlegde International HandbookofReligion in Global Society,eds.Jayeel. S. Cor- nelio, FrançoisGauthier,Tuomas Martikainen and Linda Woodhead, (Abingdon: Routlegde, in print). OpenAccess. ©2021Karsten Lehmann, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110529173-002 2 Karsten Lehmann These developments form the basis of agrowingcorpus of research-litera- ture that focuses on two main areas: First,present-day researchers are dealing with the overall development of what is frequentlydescribed as the Interreligious Dialogue Movement. To name but two classic examples: In 1996,Jean-Claude Bassetpublished the most inclusive history of IRD that givesadetaileddescrip- tion of more than 100 years of diverse dialogue initiativesand organizations with aparticularfocus on their conceptual developments.⁴ On the other sideofthe spectrum,Catherine Cornille has recentlypublishedthe first conclusive hand- book in the field that combines focal pointsofconceptual discussions with case studies on the history of dialogue activities between different religious tra- ditions.⁵ Second, two decades of research have produced afascinating set of analyses on the abstract concept of IRD.They document the different usagesofthe notion of IRD in adetailed manner and explain their philosophical and theological foundations all over the world. In the opening remarks to her Companion to inter-religious dialogue, Catherine Cornille sums up the hypothesis thatstands behindmost of those analyses: Sincethe middle of the twentieth century,the notion of dialoguehas become increasingly common in describingorprescribing the proper relationship between religions.Rather than competing with one another over territories,converts,orclaims,religions have generally cometoadopt amoreconciliatory and constructive attitude towards one another,collabo- rating in social projects and exchangingviews on common religious