Four Levels of Dialogue

By Scarboro's Department of Interfaith Dialogue
January/February 2009

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In 1984, the Vatican’s Secretariat for Non-Christians issued a document entitled The Attitude of the Church towards the Followers of Other Religions (Reflections and Orientations on Dialogue and Mission). The document described interreligious dialogue in this way:

“It [dialogue] means not only discussion, but also includes all positive and constructive interreligious relations with individuals and communities of other faiths which are directed at mutual understanding and enrichment.”

Dialogue and Mission identifies four levels of interreligious dialogue:

• the dialogue of life where Christians and others live together in a neighbourly spirit, sharing their joys and sorrows, their problems, and their preoccupations with one another;
• the dialogue of deeds where Christians and others work together in the pursuit of humanitarian, social, economic, or political goals;
• the dialogue of theological exchange where specialists deepen their understanding of each other’s spiritual values;
• the dialogue of religious experience where Christians and others share with each other their experiences of searching for the Absolute.

This page compiled by Scarboro’s Department of Interfaith Dialogue.

Jesus and other spiritual traditions

How did Jesus of Nazareth view people of other faiths? How did Jesus relate to people of other religions? Did Jesus value the teachings and practices of other faiths?

Generally speaking, these are not questions that Christians have bothered to wrestle with throughout Church history. But the 20th century witnessed a profound shift in this regard. The growing international situation of religious pluralism combined with dramatic advances in biblical scholarship have pushed the envelope.

Throughout the world, more and more Christians are now studying the New Testament with these burning questions in mind.

One of the themes of the Bible is that God is a God of universal salvation—God’s love and God’s covenant extends to all humanity. We find this theme in both the Hebrew Scriptures and in the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus was aware of having been sent to the Jews: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). But on occasion he crossed the boundaries of race, culture, and religion.

On several occasions in the New Testament, Jesus affirmed the faith of individuals who were not Jews. He even presented non-Jews (“pagans”) as models of faith; for example, the Canaanite (Syro-Phoenician) woman whose daughter he healed (Matthew 15:21-28). Jesus was so amazed by the faith of the Roman centurion that he remarked, “Truly, I tell you, nowhere in Israel have I found such faith” (Matthew 8:10).

The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) contains a challenging interfaith message. The Samaritans were not Jews. Indeed, there was much animosity between the two groups. The Jews of New Testament times viewed the Samaritans and their religion as inferior.

But, as was his custom, Jesus used an anecdote to challenge the conventional wisdom. In the parable, it is the Samaritan—the outsider—who proves faithful, not the two religiously observant individuals who belong to Jesus’ own faith group. The moral of the story is clear: God’s love is universal—it is not restricted to any specific group, race, culture, or religion.When Jesus sat by the Samaritan woman at the well and even spent two days in her village (John 4:4-42), he was breaking a taboo—Jews were forbidden to have contact with the despised Samaritans.

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