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Ecumenical texts cultivate a rich language of attitudes referring to trust, commitment, love, faithfulness, openness, etc., but their role in ecumenical advancement has been taken for granted. This article discusses attitudes in ecumenical advancement by focusing on ecumenical recognition. Some recognition theories hold attitudes, specifically personifying attitudes, to be a precondition for recognition. Contemporary recognition theories offer a rich analysis of attitudes concerning subjects and objects of recognition, the direction, and the consequences of recognition. Based on an overview of recognitive attitudes this article aims to offer new insights on (ecumenical) attitudes and a deeper understanding of ecumenical recognition and some of its challenge. Some of the main points of discussion include recognition on the interpersonal level and its relation to institutional level recognition, the individual, corporate and institutional subjects and objects of recognition, and the variety of ways attitudes relate to recognition.

This article studies young people’s experiences of religious diversity in two Nordic localities in Finland and in Norway. In the Nordic discourse, the concept of conviviality gained importance through the lwf’s policy document Seeking Conviviality in 2013. Haugen’s three “Rs”, respect, relationality and reciprocity will be used as a starting point for the analysis of the experiences of young people. The aim of the study is to understand how young people experience religious diversity and what these experiences can contribute to Haugen’s reformulation of conviviality. The results show that conviviality tends to be more easily discussed than practised. They indicate that living in the same neighbourhood with youth from other religious traditions helps to face religious diversity but that this coexistence does not in itself generate reciprocity. Rather, in order to really live together there is a need to get to know each other’s practices and values more deeply.