Interreligious dialogue and the United States of America

Abstract

Over the last few decades, American Christians have come to see that they need to practice dialogue with members of other religions. They realize that there are tens of millions of members of other faiths in the U.S., and the best way to interact with them is through friendship and mutual respect. For many years, people used the word tolerance to describe the relationship Christians should have with other faiths, but those Christians who work with other faiths have come to see that tolerance is perhaps not the best term to use, as it connotes having to put up with something or someone. A better expression for the Christian interaction with non-Christians is “interreligious dialogue.” [extract]