One of America’s foremost theologians is calling for an “active affirmation” of interreligious dialogue as a way of avoiding “religious imperialism” and the threat of a monolithic future. In remarks prepared for the opening session tomorrow of the American Jewish Committee’s National Executive Council meeting, which continues through Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here, Prof. Harvey Cox adds that a greater acceptance of religious pluralism was necessary to offset the fear of the escalating power of Christian fundamentalism.
Cox, who is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity at the Harvard University Divinity School, asserted. “Christian fundamentalism is misleading, and not a healthy basis for interreligious dialogue. It is a relationship based on a theology that forces one group against the other.”
Cox, a Baptist minister and well-known author of many books and articles on religious topics, stated that it was imperative to encourage dialogue at religious and theological levels, and that to avoid talking about divisive topics was not constructive. He continued:
“In order to get past imperialism, we must look toward the spiritual integrity of the other, which does not have to be based on agreement. It is a Providential gift that we be different. We are at a stage in history where there is more a religious and spiritual basis needed, where we must strive toward the active nurturance of a religiously pluralistic situation.”
This historic stage, he notes, stems from “the unexpected rate of artificial intelligence, combined with a world headed for homogeneity. We face what might be called a man-made single truth. My colleagues at M.I.T. talk of ‘world digitalization,’ in which we would be dependent on information that can be coded by computers. That would leave the human spirit in danger, when we would face the fear of excluding the nuances and the variety of human life.”
“Christians and Jews must go beyond mere toleration,” he asserted. “We must accept and respect the rights of others.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
