Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue: Religious Thinkers Engage with Recent Papal Initiatives(Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue)

This book engages thinkers from different religious and humanist traditions in response to Pope Francis’s pronouncements on interreligious dialogue. The contributors write from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Humanism. Each author elaborates on how the pope’s openness to dialogue and invitation to practical collaboration on global concerns represents a significant achievement as the world faces an uncertain future. The theological tension within the Catholic double commitment to evangelization on the one hand, and dialogue on the other, remains unresolved for most writers, but this does not prevent them from praising the strong invitation to dialogue–especially with the focus on justice, peace, and ecological sustainability. 

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction.- 2. In His Own Words.- 3.. “The Church Also Is Enriched When She Receives the Values of Judaism”: Shared Faith Responses to Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue.- 4.  On Donkey Drivers, Interreligious Dialogue, and Shared Tasks: A Jewish Response to Pope Francis on Interreligious Relations and Collaboration.- 5.  Is Pope Francis an Anonymous Feminist?.- 6. Is the Pope Catholic? A Question of Identity in Pope Francis’s Practical Theology of Interreligious Dialogue.- 7. Pope Francis’s Compassion.- 8.  Pope Francis, Islam, and Dialogue.- 9.  Cautious Hope: Hindu Reflections on Pope Francis.- 10. Do We Have a Religious Need for Each Other? Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue.- 11. A Sikh in Dialogue with Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.- 12. Let’s Get Off Our Cell Phones and Hear a Sikh Maxim from Pope Francis.- 13.  Toward Dialogue with Pope Francis: A Japanese Buddhist Perspective.- 14.  What Do We Share? A Secular-Humanist Response.- 15.  Be Friends and Help the World: The Contributions of Pope Francis to Interreligious and Secular Relations.

About the Author :
Harold Kasimow is the George Drake Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Grinnell College, USA. Alan Race is an Anglican priest-theologian. He is currently Chair of the World Congress of Faiths, and Editor of its journal Interreligious Insight.

Review :
“The reader of this volume comes away enriched not only by a better appreciation of how variegated the Pope’s contribution to interreligious relations has been but also by the critical as well as the constructive relation of Francis’s thought to the thought of other religions and their key thinkers. One imagines that this is precisely the kind of conversation that Francis himself would like to see emerging from his work.” (Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Modern Believing, Vol. 61 (2), April, 2020) “Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue has earned a place on any short list of resources dealing with Francis’ engagement with various traditions and cultures. The chapters are rich, diverse, and accessible. They are appropriate for students, scholars, and lay reading groups seeking to understand Francis’ vision of cultivating a culture of [interreligious] encounter.” (Hans Gustafson, Reading Religion, August 08, 2019)