Original Research - Special Collection: HTS 75th Anniversary Maake Masango Dedication

Religion, religion! Wherefore art thou, religion? Enactment in interreligious encounters as walking the talk

Maniraj Sukdaven
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 75, No 4 | a5640 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i4.5640 | © 2019 Maniraj Sukdaven | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 04 July 2019 | Published: 21 November 2019

About the author(s)

Maniraj Sukdaven, Department of Science of Religion and Missiology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

‘Interfaith dialogue’ is a term that generally assumes dialogue between different faiths. Much has been written about why, how and what form this dialogue should assume. Although many theories have been developed around this process, it remained theories and did not develop into praxis. Some of these theories include aspects of psychology, theology of religions, preconditions for dialogue, ethical theories, epistemology and even social constructs in relation to the economy, social justice and peace. In as much as these theories are important, and needed to be noted, the how to walk the talk in the encounters in interreligious dialogue is not often addressed. This article, therefore, addresses the ‘enacting’ element of interreligious encounters as human-to-human encounters in walking the talk. With the emphasis on human-to-human encounters, examples from history are considered to explicate these encounters and, finally, why the term ‘interreligious dialogue’ better expresses the human-to-human encounters than the term ‘interfaith dialogue’.

Keywords

interfaith; interreligious; dialogue; faith; religion

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