Discover the Power of Dialogue to Heal
Religious Division
How can members of different faith
traditions approach each other with openness and respect? How
can they confront the painful conflicts in their history and
overcome theological misconceptions? For more than twenty
years, Professors Mary C. Boys and Sara S. Lee have explored
ways that Catholics and Jews might overcome mistrust and
misunderstandings in order to promote commitment to religious
pluralism.
At its best, interreligious dialogue
entails not simply learning about the other from the safety of
one’s own faith community, but rather engaging in
specific learning activities with members of the other
faith—learning in the presence of the other. Drawing upon
examples from their own experience, Boys and Lee lay out a
framework for engaging the religious other in depth. With
vision and insight, they discuss ways of fostering
relationships among participants and with key texts, beliefs
and practices of the other’s tradition.
In this groundbreaking resource, they
offer a guide for members of any faith tradition who want to
move beyond the rhetoric of interfaith dialogue and into the
demanding yet richly rewarding work of developing new
understandings of the religious other—and of one’s
own tradition.
“Informed, honest and pragmatic,
demonstrates why and how Jews and Christians can engage in
dialogue on usually intractable subjects. An essential guide
for interreligious learning.”
—Amy-Jill
Levine, professor of New Testament
Studies,
Vanderbilt University Divinity School
Vanderbilt University Divinity School
“Two of America’s foremost
religious educators [provide] ... a lesson in the power and
potential of interreligious learning.”
—Jonathan
D. Sarna, professor of American
Jewish History,
Brandeis University and author of American Judaism: A History
Brandeis University and author of American Judaism: A History
“Those who are interested in
learning about other traditions will find hope in [these
words].”
—Publishers
Weekly
“An invaluable book…. Anyone
interested in Jewish-Christian dialogue will want to
read
this book.”
this book.”
—Spirituality
& Health
Mary C. Boys’ books include Jewish-Christian
Dialogue: One Woman’s Experience and Has God Only One
Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding. She is the Skinner and McAlpin Professor
of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York
City, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and
Mary, and chairs the Christian Scholars Group on
Christian-Jewish Relations.
Sara S. Lee
edited Communities of Learning: A
Vision for the Jewish Future. She
is former director of the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at
Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Los
Angeles and past president of the Association of Professors and
Researchers in Religious Education.
Dorothy C. Bass
is director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and
Formation of People in Faith and editor of Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching
People.
