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Interfaith :: Interfaith_Seminaries
 

The terms interfaith or interfaith dialogue refer to cooperative and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions, (ie. "faiths") at the both the individual and institutional level. "Interfaith" is distinct from syncretism or alternative religion, in that dialogue often involves promoting understanding between different religions to increase "tolerance" towards others, rather than to sythesize new beliefs.

The term interreligious relations refers to relationships between religions, (rel. comparative religion).

Important events in the history of interfaith dialogue

The history of interfaith dialogue especially between religions eminating from the religion of prophet Abraham (see Hanif) goes back to before the 20th century. Some recognize the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions as the birth of formal interreligious dialogue worldwide.

However, the recent and strong appearance of it is due by Fethullah Gulen's movement. The Interfaith dialogue movement has gathered much interest after the 1960s. In 1965 the Roman Catholic Church issued the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, instituting major policy changes in the Catholic Church's policy towards non-Christian religions. In the late 1960's interfaith groups joined around Civil Rights issues for African-Americans and later were often vocal in their opposition to the Vietnam War.

The interfaith dialogue movement has been popularized and reformulated by M. Fethullah Gulen (1938-), a well-known Turkish scholar. The approach is based on the belief that the religions have a lot in common. It is because of the unique source of the religions: God. They have many factors to unite them at least on moral issues rather than to divert them from each other.

Religious education

Interfaith dialogue in different religions

Sikhism

One religion, which was founded on principles of interfaith, is Sikhism, whose founders have since 1469 defined and preached the rule of interfaith dialogue and interfaith respect. A Sikh by definition must respect and accept all other world religions.

This is what the SGGS says regarding the different spiritual routes: ”

Guru Tegh Bahadur
The ninth Guru or Prophet of the Sikhs, Guru Teg Bahadur sacrificed his own life to protect the well-being of the Kashmiri Pundits or Hindus. In 1675, the Sikh’s beloved Guru was publicly beheaded in Delhi by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb for not changing his faith. Before Guru Ji’s demise, Guru Ji said “Hinduism may not be my faith, and I may not believe in various Hindu traditions like idol worship, caste system, pilgrimages and other rituals, but I will fight for the right of all Hindus and all other peoples of the world to live with honour and to practice their faith according to their own beliefs.”

This has set a precedent and Sikhs are bound by the Guru’s teaching to respect and protect the rights of all other faiths – The principle of Interfaith dialogue was thus established by the Ten Gurus of Sikhism. It is also important to note that the Sikh Gurus were helped and assisted throughout history by people of other faiths. These associates on the whole have kept their original religions and in some cases, the Gurus have carried out the last rites according to the original faiths of these associates. Obviously, many of these associates have frequently made the decision to choose Sikhism as their new faith.

As an example, Bhai Mardana (Muslim) and Bhai Bala (Hindu), were two associates of Guru Nanak. Both of them observed their own faiths and continued to practise their respective religions while accompanying Guruji on his travels spanning several decades. In case of Baba Mardana, on his death, Gurus performed the last rites as per the Muslim custom.

The foundation stone of the Golden Temple was laid by Hazrat Mian Mir Ji, a Muslim and an associate of Guru Arjan Dev. The pool adjoining the Golden Temple complex is named after a Muslim devotee called Mata Kaulan, who had given assistance to the Sikh Gurus.

Bhai Kanhaiya
Further, Bhai Kanhaiya-ji was a Sikh of Guru Tegh Bahadur who established the institute of ‘Sevapanthi’ (later called ‘Addanshahi’) sect of the Sikhs. He was born in Sodhara near Wazirabad in Sialkot District (now in Pakistan) of a wealthy family and left home when still young and travelled with yogis and other religious groups. When he met Guru Ji, he became a Sikh and settled down. Bhai Kanhaiya set up a religious centre at Kavha village,Attock District (now in Pakistan) from where he spread the Guru’s message and preached Sikhism to the local people. His special mission was the performance of selfless service (Sewa) to humanity with no distinction of nationality, caste or creed. In 1705 CE when on a visit to Anandpur he found the area entrenched in battle with a combination of hill troops of Hindu Rajas and the Mughal imperial army soldiers ‘littering’ the countryside with wounded and dying people. After the frequent skirmishes, Bhai Kanhaiya used to roam around serving water to the wounded and the dying without distinction of friend and foe.

This upset some Sikhs who complained to Guru Gobind Singh that Bhai Kanhaiya had been resuscitating the fallen enemy soldiers. Guru Gobind Singh summoned Bhai Kanhaiya and explained that he had received a complaint about his actions on the battlefield. Guruji said, “These brave Sikhs are saying that you go and feed water to the enemy and they recover to fight them again – Is this true?” Bhai Kanhaiya Ji replied "Yes, my Guru, what they said is true. But Maharaj, I saw no Mughal or Sikh in the battlefield. I only saw human beings and they all have the same God’s Spirit – Guruji have you not taught us to treat all Gods people as the same?" The Guru was very pleased with the reply. He blessed him and told the Sikhs that Bhai Kanhaiya had understood his teachings correctly. Guru also gave him medical Balm and said “From, now also put this on the wounds of all who need it”.

Sadly, Bhai Kanhaiya died in 1718 CE after retiring to Sodhara. His example, as a forerunner of the present day Red Cross, is a tribute to the universal message of compassion and kindness to all.

Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck, a Nobel laureate, gives the following comment on receiving the first English translation of the Guru Granth Sahib (The Sikh Holy Book):
I have studied the scriptures of the great religions, but I do not find elsewhere the same power of appeal to the heart and mind as I find here in these volumes. They are compact in spite of their length, and are a revelation of the vast reach of the human heart, varying from the most noble concept of God, to the recognition and indeed the insistence upon the practical needs of the human body. There is something strangely modern about these scriptures and this puzzles me until I learned that they are in fact comparatively modern, compiled as late as the 16th century, when explorers were beginning to discover the globe, upon which we all live is a single entity divided only by arbitrary lives of our own making. Perhaps this sense of unity is the source of power I find in these volumes. They speak to a person of any religion or of none. They speak for the human heart and the searching mind.
(From the foreword to the English translation of the Guru Granth Sahib by Gopal Singh M.A. Ph.D. 1960)

Christianity

Up until the Reformation, and certainly in many denominations for a long time afterwards (and up to the present), there has been strong teaching against other religious groups. Whilst in recent times, many churches have taught religious tolerance (e.g.Vatican II), recognition of the complete divine truth of other faiths is unlikely to ever occur, since it would contradict several key teachings of the New Testament. The furthest the Vatican has gone is to state that faiths around the world all hold certain truths in keeping with those of the Catholic Church, but the complete truth is only to be found in Jesus Christ.

Co-operation between different denominations is a much stronger movement within Christianity. Perhaps since it is strongly founded in doctrine:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
John 17:20-21.

However, since different Christian denominations remain within the same religion, many working in the ecumenical movement do not accept the term InterFaith, but rather Christian ecumenism. There in an important distinction between those of the same faith, but different traditions working together, and those of different faiths working together.

However, since 1993, William E. Swing, Episcopal Bishop of California, has been a primary catalyst for the creation of a 'United Religions', along the lines of the United Nations. Part One of this book, The Coming United Religions, is the story of his vision, travels, and consultations with religious and spiritual leaders. Bishop Swing's inspiring message serves as an open and hopeful introduction to the movement for the general reader. Part Two, reflecting the work of many others, includes drafts of the United Religions Charter, proposals for its unique organizational design, action agendas, and opportunities for reader feedback and participation.

Islam

The goal of dialogue among world religions is the very nature of religion demands this dialogue. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and even Hinduism and other world religions, accept the same source for themselves, and, including Buddhism, pursue the same goal. Regardless of how their adherents implement their faith in their daily lives, such generally accepted values as love, respect, tolerance, forgiveness, mercy, human rights, peace, brotherhood, and freedom are all values exalted by religion. Most of these values are accorded the highest precedence in the messages brought by Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, upon them be peace, as well as in the messages of Buddha and even Zarathustra, Lao-Tzu, Conficius, and the Hindu prophets.

Muslims accept all Prophets and Books sent to different peoples throughout history, and regard belief in them as an essential principle of being Muslim. A Muslim is a true follower of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and all other Prophets, upon them be peace. Not believing in one Prophet or Book means that one is not a Muslim. Thus Muslims acknowledge the oneness and basic unity of religion, which is a symphony of God’s blessings and mercy, and the universality of belief in religion. So, religion is a system of belief that embraces all races and all beliefs, a road that brings everyone together in brotherhood.

Muslims have a Prophetic Tradition almost unanimously recorded in the Hadith literature that Jesus will return when the end of the world is near. Muslims do not know whether he will actually reappear physically, but what's understood is that near the end of time, values like love, peace, brotherhood, forgiveness, altruism, mercy, and spiritual purification will have precedence, as they did during Jesus’ ministry.

There are many common points for dialogue among Muslims, Christians, and Jews who take their religion seriously. As pointed out by Michael Wyschogrod, an American professor of philosophy, there are just as many theoretical or creedal reasons for Muslims and Jews drawing closer to one another as there are for Jews and Christians coming together. Furthermore, practically and historically, the Muslim world has a good record of dealing with the Jews: there has been almost no discrimination, and there has been no Holocaust, denial of basic human rights, or genocide. On the contrary, Jews have always been welcomed in times of trouble, as when the Ottoman State embraced them after their expulsion from Spain.

Muslims believe that interfaith dialogue is a must today, and that the first step in establishing it is forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points, which far outnumber those which are polemical.

Hinduism

Hinduism has been a religion of unity.

"May there be welfare to all beings; may there be fullness and wholeness to all people; may there be constant good and auspicious life to everyone; may there be peace everywhere.... May all be full of happiness and abundance; may everyone in the world enjoy complete health, free from diseases; may all see and experience good things in their lives, may not even a single person experience sorrow and misery. Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!"
-- Daily prayers of Hindus

O Mother! Let all my speech be your prayer; let all my crafts and technology be your worship and be the mystic gestures of my hands, adoring you. May all my movements become your devotional circumambulations. May everything I eat or drink be oblations to you. Let my lying down in rest and sleep be prostrations to you. Mother! Whatever I do, may all that become a sacramental service and worship for you.
-- Adi Shankara, Hymn to the Divine Mother

Adi Sankara of the eighth century CE here worships God as the Divine Mother, exemplifying the experience of Hindus who relate to God, the supreme Person, equally in male and female orientations, both as Father and as Mother. This has profound implications for the vision of equality towards and between the sexes.

See also

External links

Religion | Sikhism | Christian ecumenism | Christian interfaith and secular relations

Interreligiöser Dialog

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Interfaith".

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