The Attentive Voice: Reflections on the Meaning and Practice of Interreligious Dialogue

For three and a half decades, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID) has been bringing individuals from faiths with a monastic tradition Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism to discuss the deeper rhythms and structures of their traditions: the practices, disciplines, and struggles and joys of a vocation. In these essays, gathered from twenty-five years of MID’s Bulletin, the authors describe the ways dialogue with other religious traditions has enhanced their spiritual life, explain why interreligious relations have become such an important element of modern Catholic life, and reflect on the meaning of interreligious dialogue vis-a-vis the Catholic Church’s teaching on revelation and salvation in and through Jesus Christ. In so doing, they show that interreligious dialogue is an engaging, enlightening, and spiritually enriching way to respond to religious plurality.