Religious Diversity and the Possibility of a Global Interfaith Ethics.

Dispersion of religious people and ideas bring diverse beliefs and believers into close contact with each other. How do religious leaders generate religious solutions to regularize multireligious interactions? How do multireligious interactions affect forms of religiosity? Multireligious interactions generate one of three outcomes: compartmentalization, toleration, and interfaith dialogue. This paper explores rarely examined form of multireligious interactions: interfaith dialogue. According to the conventional wisdom, multireligious interactions are particularly challenging to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam due to their monotheistic exclusion. Interfaith dialogue activities indicate that there is more to the monotheistic interactions than violence and conflict. I argue that increasing number of religious scholars and believers of the monotheistic traditions reject exclusivist approach to religion. An interfaith agenda operates among religious leaders and believers to interpret their traditions more inclusive and pluralist to create a theological space accommodating and validating each other’s existence. The interfaith dialogue is more than a theological process. It incorporates ethical and political themes. It conflates theological accommodation with demands for a more humane globalization. Religious scholars engage theological and ethical dialogues to create a transreligious coalition in pursuit of common moral goals. Religious leaders assume their moral authority to combat materialism, consumerism, and environmental degradation. The shared moral concerns supersede divisive discussions about conceptualization of Godhead. At the communal level, interfaith activists infuse quest for shared spirituality with social activism. Interfaith meetings and activism aims to create a global interfaith ethics by raising concerns about war, poverty, and environment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]