Seven Principles of Interfaith Engagement

An older email that I hadn't looked at until today yielded a link to a very useful and thought provoking article. Clicking on the image above will take you to it. I want to thank my friend Holli Emore of Interfaith Partners of South Carolina for bringing it to my attention.

My own personal aspirations are toward a kind of universal religion, not mandatory, not to replace anyone's belief system, but for those who are not deeply grounded in a particular tradition and love the notion of a transcendent vision. Unfortunately, my perspective is the thing that frightens some of my friends, who adhere to various orthodox religions, about the Interfaith movement, and I think that the perspective I've gained from this article will be very useful in keeping an open dialog with them. In truth, another deep attraction to the interfaith movement for me is a profound love and appreciation of human diversity (languages, cultures, folkways and cuisines!) and I do celebrate the differences! Here are the seven principles and excerpts from Mr. Burklo's amplifications of them. Be sure to to see the full article.

Seven Principles of Interfaith Engagement
by Jim Burklo on April 19, 2016

Here I offer some basic guidance about how people of different faiths can engage with each other in meaningful and productive ways. This advice is the product of 36 years of interfaith work, culminating in my present job as Associate Dean of the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California.
 
1) The world’s religions are different from each other. That ought to go without saying, but there are many people who believe that each religion is just a different path up the same mountain, or that they are different languages to express the same experiences. They can be forgiven for this, because indeed there are threads and themes that look familiar across the lines of faith. My colleague at Stanford, Robert Gregg, former Dean of Memorial Church, once wisely said that the world’s religions are many paths up many different mountains. But when you get to the top of any of the mountains, you can admire a beautiful mountain range. …
 
2) The differences between religions are different. The difference between Hinduism and Islam is not analogous to the difference between Christianity and Judaism. Furthermore, these faiths have substantially different endogenous definitions of religion. Judaism as a religion is quite different than Christianity as a religion. For one thing, Judaism has an intrinsic ethnic identity that Christianity lacks. The failure to account for the differences between the differences results in deep misunderstandings in interfaith contexts. An example is the website “Belief.net”, one of the earliest attempts at interfaith engagement online. The very title of the website reflects a Protestant Christian bias. For evangelical Christianity, religion is defined first and foremost by belief. But many other faiths are defined more by rituals and practices than by doctrinal assertions.
 
3) Religions, and sects of religions, have different ways of understanding religious differences. But these differences don’t necessarily impede interfaith engagement. Diana Eck of the Harvard Pluralism Project defines three general ways that religions relate to each other. Pluralism is the idea that other religions may be as good for others as mine is for me. Inclusivism she defines as the assumption that other religions may have truth and value worthy of engaging, but whatever is good in them is but a lesser reflection of the ultimate, authoritative good of my own tradition. Eck defines exclusivism as the assumption that other religions are wrong at best and evil at worst, and that my faith is the only true one. … I do think that pluralism makes more room for appreciating the faiths of others than does inclusivism or exclusivism. But these latter two approaches still can allow for very rich interfaith conversations.
 
4) Different issues make for surprising interfaith bedfellows! Understanding the nuances of different faith perspectives on social issues is important for those who want to promote interfaith cooperation, to seek common ground where possible, and make room for disagreement where possible. … Understanding the historical and theological reasons for these differing views will help greatly in promoting interfaith engagement.
 
5) It’s good to know something about the world’s religions: I have spent my entire life studying my own tradition, Christianity, and the more I learn, the more I discover there is to learn. The older I get, the more boggled I am by its depth and breadth. I can only presume that this is the case for the other faiths, too. Effective interfaith leadership requires curiosity and humility. …regardless of your level of education in world religions, there is so very much more to know that could affect your relationships with people of other faiths. Ask questions, and then ask more questions based on the answers.
 
6) In America today, “innerfaith” exploration is part of interfaith engagement. The trend in religion in the US is toward increasing heterodoxy. Catholics are doing yoga. Evangelicals are going to tarot card readings. Jews have been practicing Zen meditation for decades. … But as the number of religiously unaffiliated people grows rapidly, we need to make room at the interfaith table for them. We need to make room for overt atheists, too. We need to ask questions. Where and how do you find support from other people for your spiritual journey? How do you experience spirituality, and what practices do you employ to evoke or express it?
 
7) You can grow in your own faith tradition through deep exposure to other traditions. One reason to get involved in interfaith work is to look more critically at your own faith, take it more seriously, and become more curious about it. … Any risk of temptation to switch religions is outweighed by the benefit of going deeper in one’s faith as a consequence of interfaith dialogue.