Shared Wisdom : Introduction

Introduction

There will be no peace among nations until there is peace among religions. And there will be no peace among religions until there is dialogue among religions. - Hans Küng, 1993

hared Wisdom, a book about engendering friendship among strangers, comes from an interreligious team of people in Marin County, California, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Inspired by a growing global grassroots interfaith movement, we believe the ability to nurture authentic friendship among strangers from different religious backgrounds has become an important survival skill for the human family in the twenty-first century. We are not interested in creating a new religion, proselytizing, or becoming a political movement. But we share a profound commitment to knowing each other and collaborating on projects important to us all.

We think dialogue and relationship are critical in communities, large or small, that wish to stay civil, much less vital and robust.
The multi-religious dialogue we envision is open to all points of view, theistic and atheistic, spiritual and material, rational and imaginative.
We treat each other with mutual respect.
And we hope that the friendship we learn between traditions will be used for reconciling bridge-building within traditions when we find ourselves divided.

          Shared Wisdom explores the unique religious diversity we live in today. It surveys several post-World War II documents that have helped shape our thinking about dialogue and relationship. You’ll find suggestions about studying the material and getting acquainted with neighbors from different traditions and, in chapter 5, a provocative chart for developing dialogue skills by Professor Patrice Brodeur. The book ends with an annotated list of resources and links.
          Shared Wisdom was conceived when a group of Mill Valley congregations sponsored a course in world religions taught by Philip Novak of Dominican University in San Rafael. People enjoyed the class thoroughly and wanted more, something taking them the next step, offering opportunities to meet and get to know neighbors from as many different traditions as possible. A planning group formed.
          Dominican University, the International Association of Sufism, and the Marin Interfaith Council all became sponsors, and the Interfaith Center at the Presidio was brought in to help organize and support a new kind of project. A course titled “Waking Up in the New Religious America – Building Bridges of Interfaith Understanding” was planned, taught by Paul Chaffee, executive director at the Interfaith Center, who wrote this text with help from an editorial team drawn from the planning group. A concluding conference is planned for January 2005. Shared Wisdom was written for anyone interested in developing healthy relations among different faith families. It is a resource for the Marin County course and conference, and we hope it inspires similar ventures everywhere.
          The planning group, hoping to engage as many as possible in Marin’s religious community, decided to send a copy of the book to each congregation in the county to use as it wishes, including making copies. The work at hand, though, need not wait a moment. To begin, all you need is an hour or two of your time spent with an acquaintance from a different faith. Find a quiet, comfortable place, have a cup of tea or a meal or a walk in the park, and explore the issues below.
          As you begin your dialogue, remember some of us grew up in highly religious families; other families are happy to be free of religious language and institution. Most of us, regardless of family and institution, have deep spiritual roots, but they can be defined and reembodied in thousands of different ways. The idea here is to share with each other what we find particularly valuable in our own religious/spiritual backgrounds, the values forged, the truth discovered, and the journey that follows.

Please tell me about your spiritual, religious tradition, how it influenced you and what you found most valuable about it, then and today.
How does your religious background approach the issues of peacemaking and ‘healing the world’? Can you tell me a story about witnessing your community stand up for justice and peace in a way that made you proud? Or a story about reconciliation and conflict within your faith family or close friends?

The reward for starting up (especially if the two of you do yourselves the favor of finding the time and place to be comfortable and relaxed about the conversation) can barely if ever be completely explained. You’ll understand as soon as you get there.

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FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION

What do you think of the quote from Hans Küng? Do you feel that peace is important? Do you think that dialogue among the world’s religions will help facilitate peace? Is this dialogue important for other reasons? What else could the world’s religions do to facilitate peace?
Have you seen times when dialogue facilitated reconciliation? Please describe.
Have you previously been involved in inter- (or intra-) religious dialogue? What occurred? What worked in the dialogue? What were the lasting benefits?
With whom and when could you try the exercise suggested above? Can you report the results afterwards: What worked? What benefits did you derive from the experience? What did you learn that might help you in future dialogue?

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