Edited by RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE IN THE BALKANS: THE DRAMA OF UNDERSTANDING Edited by Milan Vukomanović and Marinko Vučinić Belgrade Open School Belgrade, Masarikova 5/16, Belgrade Palace Tel: (+381 11) 30 65 800, 36 13 112 Tel/Fax: (+381 11) 36 13 112 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.bos.org.yu For Publisher Vesna Đukić © for English Language Belgrade Open School Editor Milan Vukomanović Translation Ljiljana Nikolić Design and Layout Belgrade Open School ISBN 86-83441-26-5 e translation of this anthology into English was supported by a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Kotor Network and facilitated by the Department of Culture Studies at the University of Oslo All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereaer invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Contents Preface, 7 PART ONE Đuro Šušnjić, e Meaning and Significance of Dialogue, 11 Vladeta Jerotić, Is ere an Authentic Dialogue and What Is It?, 21 Ivan Cvitković, Inter-Religious Relations in a Multicultural Society, 29 Srđan Vrcan, Lacerated between Enormous Challenges and Inadequate Responses: Religion in the Nineties in this Region, 43 Nikola Dugandžija, On the Prospects of Inter-Religious and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue: What about Minorities? 61 David Steele, Practical Approaches to Inter-Religious Dialogue and the Empowerment of Religious Communities as Agents of Reconciliation, 81 Andrija Kopilović, eology of Ecumenism as a Joint Path, 91 Jakob Pfeifer, Ecumenism - Inter-Church - Inter-Religious Understanding and (or) World Globalization, 109 PART TWO Refik Šećibović, e Balkans – A Religious Border Area, 117 Klaus Buchenau, Religions in European South East in the 21st Century: Change of Importance, 127 Radmila Radić, e State, Serbian Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church from 1946 until the Mid-Sixties 137 Milan Vukomanović, e West and Islam, 159 Ljubiša Rajić, Fundamentalism – Ends or Means? 173 Zorica Kuburić, On the Possibilities for Dialogue and Religious Tolerance in Protestantism, 197 Mirko Blagojević, Revitalization of Religion and Dialogue, 217 Branimir Stojković, Religious and Cultural Diversity as a Basis or Obstacle for Reconciliation in Southeastern Europe, 223 Milica Bakić Hayden, On the Possibilities for a Dialogue between Different Religions, 231 Jelena Đorđević, Inter-Religious Dialogue and Everyday Life, 237 Joseph Julian, Living with Religious Differences, 243 Čedomir Čupić, Political Order and Inter-Religious Dialogue, 251 AUTHORS, 257 PREFACE Preface is book is a collection of articles contributed by the scholars who participated in round tables, summer schools and seminars organized by the Center for Religious Studies of the Belgrade Open School in the period 2000-2003. e participants in these seminars (entitled Religions of the Balkans and held in various cities of this region) were some of the prominent religious studies scholars and theologians from Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Germany and the United States. e authors based their discussions on a starting premise that, during the last fiy years, insufficient attention was paid to an authentic, direct dialogue between representatives of various religious communities in former Yugoslavia. Before, and aer the conflicts and wars that marked a greater part of the last decade, the gatherings of religious communities’ representatives, as well as of scientists and religious experts from the region, were more “cosmetic” and, quite oen, very politicized in the light of current events. In such a confused atmosphere, it happened that churches themselves did not make enough efforts to prevent, or at least react to the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Consequently, one may hear some scholars oen raising the question whether religious communities contributed to this problem, or were at least part of it. Notwithstanding various perspectives and scholarly debates regarding this controversial issue, it was clear that churches and other religious communities could do much more in the field of reconciliation, as well as in healing the disastrous consequences of the most recent Balkan wars. In this sense, it is very important to refer to the historical and practical experiences of other European and non-European countries that had experienced similar ordeals in their past. All this, of course, demonstrates an immense significance of 7 PREFACE independent, non-political (non-politicized) and continual gathering of religious communities, scholars and other experts for religion, ecumenical dialogue and culture of peace and tolerance. In the first part of this anthology, a greater attention was dedicated to the following issues: the theoretical and practical assumptions of inter-religious dialogue and tolerance in multi-confessional societies; religious implications of the conflicts in Southeastern Europe and the role of religious communities as agents of reconciliation; religions in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s; theology of ecumenism; the status of minorities in multi-ethnic and multi-confessional societies. e articles published in the second part of the book tackled a number of additional issues and problems, such as the different levels and aspects of inter-religious dialogue; religions in the border areas; the roles and perspectives of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Serbia and Roman Catholic Church in Croatia; the revitalization of religion in the Balkans; Islam and the West; globalization and religious fundamentalism; presentation of religions in schools and media, etc. e translation of this anthology into English was supported by a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Kotor Network1 and facilitated by the Department of Culture Studies at the University of Oslo. e book editors, as well as the Belgrade Open School, greatly appreciate the generosity of these institutions, which made possible the publication of this volume. 1 e Kotor Network is an international academic exchange in the field of Balkans- based religious studies. 8 PART ONE THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF DIALOGUE Đuro Šušnjić THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF DIALOGUE Let me start with a few thoughts regarding the meaning and significance of dialogue in general and especially of inter-religious dialogue. ese thoughts are not for a single use, they are not for a single season! What is the deeper meaning of dialogue than the one implied in everyday use of the term? 1. What is dialogue in terms of human development, from an ontological point of view? Karl Jaspers rightly emphasizes that “one mind cannot encompass a whole”. Dialogue comes out of an incompleteness in a man; in order to deal with that incompleteness, he needs another man who is different from him. If I and you are exactly the same, nothing happens to us: we have nothing to talk about! e difference between me and you makes it possible for us to talk to each other! Apostle Paul emphasizes: “ere are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound” (1 Cor. 14:10). Whatever we do in life are, in fact, attempts to complement ourselves and fill the gaps, to become complete persons. F. Nietzsche cries out: “We are desperate to become whole.” A conversation with another is not in the service of an external goal, but for the purpose of personal development: a beautiful personality and a wise thought can be born only out of a conversation! Whoever is unable to talk, is unfit for development; to give up on a conversation with another means to give up on oneself! When you get to know someone else, you have expanded yourself by another life. Whoever the other person is, that person is 11 THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF DIALOGUE different from me: my opposite and my complement! One man, if he can really influence another, becomes part of his destiny: we are part of people we met! at is a conversation with consequences. 2. What is dialogue in terms of finding out the truth—a gnoseological point of view? Truth can be found where there are questions and answers. To be open for questions of another is to be open for another way of thinking. You and I start a conversation each with our own truth and end it with a new truth we were not aware of prior to our meeting. We emerge from a dialogue spiritually different: in our soul and our spirit we carry more than we used to! A synthesis of two different attitudes is gnoseologically more valuable than each individual attitude alone. If during a conversation we discover features of reality beyond us and within ourselves, characteristics we have not been aware of before, then we have to say that conversation can result in a discovery, if not in a revelation. ere lies the truth of our meeting and our meeting in the truth. Our life happens as a meeting: it enables spiritual development! If someone thinks that he cannot learn anything from somebody else, he has then reduced the entire knowledge to his own experience. A conversation is the only way to prevent a thought from closing itself down in a system and a life from becoming a jail: a closed system/person, society, culture tends to end in decay. Such systems have no future because they cannot stand a different experience either from within or without. at which is coming from another, i.e. that which is different, ought not be taken as a threat, but as an experience of a difference that we use like a block to build our own life. As long as some people lack the opportunity to express their thoughts, a society lacks the perspective of which solutions are possible or real; it does not know about itself all that it could know provided it were open! 3.