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. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxvii Introduction (Harold Kasimow, Alan Race)....Pages 1-3 Front Matter ....Pages 5-5 In His Own Words (Pope Francis)....Pages 7-81 Front Matter ....Pages 83-84 “The Church Also Is Enriched When She Receives the Values of Judaism”: Shared Faith Responses to Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue (Edward Kessler)....Pages 85-100 On Donkey Drivers, Interreligious Dialogue, and Shared Tasks: A Jewish Response to Pope Francis on Interreligious Relations and Collaboration (Debbie Young-Somers)....Pages 101-111 Is Pope Francis an Anonymous Feminist? (Helene Egnell)....Pages 113-128 Is the Pope Catholic? A Question of Identity in Pope Francis’s Practical Theology of Interreligious Dialogue (Stephen B. Roberts)....Pages 129-144 Pope Francis’s Compassion (Amineh A. Hoti)....Pages 145-168 Pope Francis, Islam, and Dialogue (Ataullah Siddiqui)....Pages 169-182 Cautious Hope: Hindu Reflections on Pope Francis (Jeffery D. Long)....Pages 183-197 Do We Have a Religious Need for Each Other? Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue (Anantanand Rambachan)....Pages 199-218 A Sikh in Dialogue with Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (Dharam Singh)....Pages 219-233 Let’s Get Off Our Cell Phones and Hear a Sikh Maxim from Pope Francis (Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh)....Pages 235-257 Toward Dialogue with Pope Francis: A Japanese Buddhist Perspective (Dennis Hirota)....Pages 259-277 What Do We Share? A Secular-Humanist Response (Shoshana Ronen)....Pages 279-300 Front Matter ....Pages 301-301 Be Friends and Help the World: The Contributions of Pope Francis to Interreligious and Secular Relations (Leo D. Lefebure)....Pages 303-328 Back Matter ....Pages 329-348