by James Blackhall.
When I lead sessions for Christians, I often start by asking them how much interfaith engagement is a part of their Christian discipleship and whether they are happy with that or would like it to be a bigger part of their following of Jesus. Many people have informal interfaith encounters without thinking about it – living in a city like Leicester I have those encounters every time I go into a shop or use public transport. However, deeper engagement may be harder to find. I’d argue that for many of us this is not an add on to our Christian discipleship but an essential part of it. It can help us to understand the world as Christian disciples and move beyond our preconceived ideas as to what it is to live as people of faith in the world today. In a previous post I talked about what Interfaith Dialogue meant to me and what I had gained and want to explore that further in how we think about the relationship between interfaith engagement and our discipleship.
Interfaith engagement is a response to God’s invitation to each of us to live in dialogue. As ‘the life of Christian discipleship is a matter of engaging both self and the world in the quest for deeper knowledge of God and living out the life which goes with that quest and knowledge.’[1] Pratt goes on to talk about the fact that dialogue in various forms is an essential part of our discipleship and that interfaith dialogue can be part of that. We are constantly called to ‘love our neighbour’ and to do that we have to get to know one another.
Methodist presbyter and theologian Israel Selvanayagam reminds us that the Bible ‘is distinctively a book of dialogue and it contains many dialogues within. We can misread its passages if we miss the dialogical context’[2] We see in scripture people of various groups having dialogue. I am always drawn in by the story of the Syrophoenician woman who appears to lead Jesus to have a change of heart. We may not always change our mind on fundamental issues when we engage with people who are different to us, but I would argue that we are always changed. I am richer for the conversations I have had with people of other faiths and have learnt a great deal from them. Seeing the dedication of Muslim friends to prayer, for example, made me reexamine my own rather ad hoc prayer practices and turn that into something that was more committed and regular. This enhanced my discipleship precisely because I saw that.
However, dialogue can lead us into difficult conversations. At the St Philip’s Centre, we talk about ‘learning to live well together’ and that means being able to have open and honest conversations about areas that are difficult. As Methodists we have agreed to live with contradictory convictions on the definition of marriage. We have agreed to listen and walk with one another even when our views are radically different in what many see as a fundamental area of life. This is not without cost for anyone involved but by journeying together we can find what it truly means to live as community and to love our neighbour as ourselves. This is the same sort of living with difference we can encounter as we talk with friends of other faiths and develop trust. If we are invited to ‘love our neighbour’ then how can we do that unless we try to understand the world from their perspective? Perhaps this can also help us to avoid bearing false witness in a world where much of what is said about people of some faiths in the media is derogatory and unfair.
If part of our discipline is about living with difference and reconciliation then being able to have difficult conversations is surely part of that. It is in conversations that are difficult that we begin to be able to understand one another. This is where we can fulfil the command to love our neighbour as we walk together in a spirit of openness and trust.
[1] Pratt, D. (2009). Christian discipleship and interfaith engagement. Pacifica, 22(3), 317-333. Accessed at researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/5557/Christian.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Pg 333
[2] Israel Selvanayagam (2004), Relating to People of Other Faiths: Insights from the Bible, Tiruvalla and Bangalore: CSS Books Pg 30, as quoted in researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/5557/Christian.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Theology Everywhere 
I fell deeply uneasy about the idea that because I am a Christian I should engage with people of other faiths about my ultimate concerns in life. Much prefer the idea that because I am a human being I should engage with other human beings, whether they have a faith or not, about our ultimate concerns in life. I remember as a teenager in the 1960’s being exhorted from the pulpit to talk to strangers and ask them if they had been “saved” or not and there were those awful services where we heard “testimonies”. This is confrontation and it destroys whatever chance there is, or was, of dialogue. I feel that to act on the principle of Christian discipleship rather than human mutual ethical concern leads nowhere. All that matters in life is to love and be loved – what else do we need?
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Thank you for your comment. I always mean to engage with comments and usually never manage!
Absolutely dialogue should always be about “our” concerns- as in all of those involved not just one and indeed being human is about engaging with others. I don’t disagree. What I talk of is definitely not about converting people or asking if they are saved but about being open to conversation and meeting others.
Whether I act as part of discipleship or as a human ethical principal I don’t know. I know that working in the interfaith field has changed and enriched my discipleship and I do believe it is where God has called me to be. I think it’s an important thing to do -and I do believe more widely where we are as Methodists around dialogue on all sorts of issues brings an interesting parallel where I can make connections to how I live in terms of dialogue with people of other faiths.
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Thanks for the reply James. Like the idea that discipleship is not about “converting people or asking if they are saved but about being open to conversation and meeting others”. In my understanding dialogue, being open to meeting others, is love in action. And in that sense discipleship and acting on the principal of mutual ethical concern are the same thing. For me whenever we meet other people with no preconditions and no agenda this is unconditional love and in that meeting “God” is invariably present to us. My “catchphrase” for this is that God comes to mind in the context of my ethical concern for others. This universalises and secularises theology, so not sure where this leaves the idea of Christian discipleship?
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Hi James
Technical reasons mean I cannot respond directly via the website however, I would like to add the following observations on the above recent post.
I firmly believe in the power of inter-faith dialogue as part of our Christian Witness. 2. In my previous working life I have led teams in multi-cultural and multi-faith environments and where in among the usual encounters over football and cricket etc, I enjoyed some tremendous discussions on our respective faiths and where Jesus always managed to get mentioned. 3. While studying at the Queenâs Foundation some years ago, one of the most enjoyable modules was inter-faith engagement where we visited in my case, the Graham Street Gurdwara and Progressive Synagogue both in Birmingham. It was these encounters which further developed my belief in the Plurality of Faiths. 4. This has not only has helped in my own understanding but facilitated more effective engagement with other faiths especially in my previous voluntary work in multi-faith chaplaincy for NHS and currently for West Midlands Police Service since 2020. 5. As a Methodist Local Preacher I recently led a service on the theme, âWhat does Jesus mean to me?â and where a good friend of mine who is of a Hindu background on her Fatherâs side and Christian on her Mothers, not only helped with the readings but more importantly, delivered a very personal and moving testimony on what Jesus meant to her as someone from a predominantly non-Christian background. 6. Needless to say it was well received by the congregation present who felt it was an important message for us to hear particularly as Walsall is like Leicester, a example of modern urban living where all faiths and none seem to co-exist in relative harmony. 7. Long may this kind of engagement continue to thrive.
Kind Regards
Michael Cronogue
Sent from Mail for Windows
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