Interreligious dialogue as a myth

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Interreligious dialogue as a myth
 
Creator Akah, Josephine N. Ajah, Anthony C.
 
Subject Critical Study of Religion interreligious dialogue; myth; intellectual humility; epistemic authority; secular
Description The authors aim in this article to show why it is extremely difficult to expect representatives of missionary religions to engage in productive interreligious dialogue. The article demonstrates how the imperative to convert, which is rooted in a sense of epistemic authority that one holds the best version of truth, precludes interreligious dialogue among religionists. The authors note, on the one hand, that the primary condition for any dialogue is that each of those involved come to the dialogue intellectually humble. On the other hand, the authors note that for missionary religionists to embrace intellectual humility requires a fundamental rethink of their claims of epistemological certainty and final epistemic authority. This implies abandoning the missionary mandate and witnessing built on a sense of intellectual certainty and pride. The authors therefore argue that intellectual humility is a necessary condition for productive interreligious dialogue. Because representatives of missionary religions claim certainty about the knowledge they espouse, what is paraded as interreligious dialogue is largely a myth. It will remain a mere concept that yields little to no tangible result unless these representatives embrace intellectual humility, which is more achievable within a secularist framework.Contribution: This research contributes to the seemingly easy but difficult discourse and practice about interreligious dialogue. It brings to the limelight a more appropriate conception of dialogue in the context of interreligious dialogue, and explains how side-lining that conception empties the predominant practice of interreligous dialogue. This contribution is useful to HTS, which focuses on theological and religious studies, as well as critical study of religions.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-07-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v78i1.7706
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 78, No 1 (2022); 7 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7706/22769 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7706/22770 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7706/22771 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/7706/22772
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Josephine N. Akah, Anthony C. Ajah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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