Interfaith dialogue--how is it possible?

[mathematoons]

My priest talks about the Church dialoguing with other faiths. How do we dialogue with other faiths when we know that 1) we have the fullness of truth and 2) they don’t? I realize it sounds like an arrogant question, but the truth claims of other religions directly contradict ours, and when they are in conflict, we know ours are right. And, presumably, the other person is thinking along the same lines–they think their religion is right, not ours.

So how is it possible?

 

[DavidFilmer]

We dialogue with protestants all the time here on CAF - we try to show them the fullness of the Faith. It’s a missionary ministry that the Church at large also engages in.

Besides, there’s no reason why we can’t work together to feed the hungry. There are many things that Catholics and protestants can do together where our different beliefs are not an impediment.

 

[Samuel63]

Dialogue is needed and a necessary first step for them to see the full truth.

We have to do this with love and charity - never condescending.

However, when we water down the truth in an attempt to reach out to their point of view, we fail miserably.

If your parish leadership has a habit of this dilution of the truth, try to counter it. Prayer first, and action next are needed.

 

[tlimon]

Dialogue is needed and a necessary first step for them to see the full truth.

We have to do this with love and charity - never condescending.

However, when we water down the truth in an attempt to reach out to their point of view, we fail miserably.

If your parish leadership has a habit of this dilution of the truth, try to counter it. Prayer first, and action next are needed.

Ditto. I would add, though, the Catholic faith could potentially co-opt other faiths by superceeding them. What I mean is that other faiths could act as forerunners to fulness in the Catholic faith. The E. Orthodox have depictions of Plato with a halo over his head. Why not Krishna? Before we can co-opt like that, we need to develop a language and that language is built through dialogue.

 

[TommyWommy]

The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ. Read through the Gospels and note how often Christ engaged in dialogue with people in order to reach them and teach them. The Church is “being Christ.” Christ did not restrict His dialogue to those that agreed with Him.