Being Open, Being Faithful: The Journey of Interreligious Dialogue

What does Christian identity mean in the face of religious pluralism? In some ways the frontier of global Christianity lies not in repairing its past divisions so much as bravely facing its future in a world of many other faiths and conflicting convictions. Douglas Pratts new work is a brief history, astute analysis, and trustworthy guide for Christian encounter in this pluralistic environment. A central argument of this perceptive work is that inter-religious dialogue has moved so far as to fundamentally change the attitudes and openness of world religious traditions to each other, promising a future more open and less hostile than one might otherwise think. Pratt presents and reflects on the recent history of inter-religious encounter and dialogue, and he traces the manifold difficulties involved, especially as they are experienced in Roman Catholic and WCC engagements with other faiths.
But Pratt does much more: along with the history of such encounters, Pratt examines the issue of Christian discipleship in the context of interfaith engagement, the operative models, the thorny issue of core theological commitments, and what, in Pratts view, might be the shape of Christian identity in light of such encounters.