Dialogue between religions: new challenges for the future

Nov 06, 2015

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Msgr Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku gave a lecture at a conference at the Confucius Institute at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.

The Silk Road, an ancient network of trade, helped to integrate the old Chinese, Indian, Persian, Arabian, ancient Greek and Roman cultures and promoted the exchange of the Western and Oriental civilizations. The history of the Silk Road is replete with prophets of peace and non-violence, as well as warmongers and ruthless rulers. Today, some of the old Silk Road countries, as in the past, are faced with religious fundamentalism, armed conflicts with religious overtones and the archaeological terrorism threatening regional and international stability and security.

What are the new challenges for interreligious dialogue today? What can we learn from the old Silk Road to foster dialogue? The current challenge of religion and violence is related to polarized perspectives of “otherness.” Accordingly, religion is used by people or groups to enhance their violent perspectives or to justify their violence. It is no exaggeration to say that the role played by religion, in conflict situations, is explicitly or implicitly linked to other issues such as ethnicity, culture, poverty, tradition, gender, language and politics. Within this context emerges the dual role of religion: building up bridges or putting up walls in human hearts and relationships. Since religion often shapes our attitudes and world views, the perception of our realities become filled with religious judgements about good and evil. The dehumanisation of the other results in the inability to see the other as other and to take the other as equal.

How can we change this situation? Can we educate people for peace and nonviolence? What role can religion play? As we saw above, the present culture of violence is based on distrust, suspicion, intolerance and hatred. The solution depends on replacing the culture of violence with a new culture based on non-violence, tolerance, mutual understanding, solidarity and peaceful conflict resolution. Besides, durable peace depends on the following areas: i) Education for peace, human rights, democracy, international understanding and tolerance. ii) Promotion of human rights and democracy, and the struggle against discrimination. iii) Promoting cultural pluralism and intercultural dialogue. iv) Working for conflict prevention and post-conflict peace-building.

Religion is a force for good and love in the world. Therefore, it has the potentiality to convert enmity to amity through the transformative power of its spirituality. Religion can enhance the re-socialisation of people by healing their distorted relationships in post-war and post-conflict zones. It can encourage people with a traumatic past, to make the journey from victim to survivor to victor. By encouraging the victims and perpetrators to deal with wounded memories, through forgiveness, reconciliation, and restorative justice, religion can bring about a new life for them. This process requires overcoming the fears of dominion by one group over others, memory healing, power sharing and avoiding any instigation by external forces. History is the Greatest Teacher. The worst enemy of peace is despair. Let us examine a few political and religious figures from the old Silk Road countries to see how they have contributed to build a culture of peace, as well as a culture of violence.

Dialogue and diplomacy to avert blood-baths
Dialogue is a panacea for conflict resolution. There is high drama in the meeting of the founders of the two empires, Seleucus I of Persia and Chandragupta of India. About 305 B.C., Seleucus marched east across the Indus River into the Punjab. Chandragupta stood to meet him with an army of a half a million men and nine thousand elephants, and Persia and India were on the brink of a gigantic war. But there is no report of any battle. Instead, the two reached an understanding, perhaps even a marriage alliance. (Cf. L.W. Brown, Indian Christians of St Thomas, p. 51) Here, dialogue and diplomacy contributed to avoid a bloody conflict.

Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) dispatched the first Catholic missionary, John of Plano Carpini and another, to the Mongols in 1245. The missionaries were given two commissions: a political one, to avert further onslaught on Christendom by the invaders, and a spiritual one, to preach Christianity to them that they might be converted. (Cf. S. H. Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. I, Beginnings to 1500, pp. 406-7)

Dialogue promotes respect, mutual understanding and collaboration
A culture of encounter fosters pluralism and intercultural dialogue. NA notes that “The Church, (…), exhorts her sons, that through dilogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, (…)(to) recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men” (NA n.2). When the Emperor Taizong of Tang (598-649) discovered that the new faith the Persian Christian missionaries had brought was the religion of a book, he was immediately interested. He received Alopen as an honoured guest and ordered him to translate the Christian Scriptures into Chinese.

The Arab swept into Persia in 636 and it badly affected Christians as well. Yet, history records mutual collaboration among Muslim Arabs and Nestorian Christians. For instance, an eighth century Christian bishop had travelled to China with an Arab envoy. Furthermore, it is reported that Nestorian missionaries accompanied Arab ambassadors to China in the 7th and 8th centuries (Cf. S. H. Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, p. 297).

Inter-monastic dialogue and cooperation which occurred in the 8th century is another example of friendship among Buddhists and Christians. The famous Buddhist missionary, Prajna, from northern India, had arrived at the Chinese capital in 782. He was asked to translate the Buddhist sutras he had brought with him. Prajna did not understand the Chinese language at that time, so he sought help from a Persian Nestorian monk-bishop and missionary scholar, Ching-ching (Adam) of the monastery of Ta-ts’in, with the translation. It is said that the two missionaries translated seven volumes. (Cf. Yoshiro P. Saeki, The Nestorian Documents and Relics in China, p.113).

Conclusion
In a world where many regions suffer from increasing tensions, conflicts, violence and other social and environmental ills, religions have an inherent mission to transform this culture of violence to a culture of peace and encounter. Culture of violence emerges due to the failures of religions. Religions, on occasion, have lived up to their values and principles and have transmitted it to others. Yet, the same religions, at other times, failed to abide by their teachings and thereby, failed in their mission. Jesus says that “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come” (Mark 7.21). Buddha teaches that “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” Human personality can undergo radical transformation because “In the heart of every man and woman is the desire for a full life, including that irrepressible longing for fraternity which draws us to fellowship with others and enables us to see them, not as enemies or rivals, but as brothers and sisters to be accepted and embraced” (Message for World Day of Peace 2014, n. 1). Along the old Silk Road, we encounter some political and religious figures who have fostered fraternity and dialogue, and they shine like bright stars in this dark period of our history. Walking in their footsteps, through dialogue with respect and friendship, let us contribute to a culture of encounter and co-existence! -- Vatican Radio