When we talk about ‘dialogue’, many people think of it as a neologism coined in a closed circle within the Catholic Church, which appeared almost concomitantly with Vatican II. Yet dialogue is what makes human beings unique; it is their defining characteristic. We are fundamentally dialogical. Take dialogue away from human beings and they will no longer be human. As a characteristic element of human beings, dialogue is part of God’s creative act. Saint Augustine asked this fundamental question: what did God do before the creation of the world? (Quid facibat Deus ante creationem mundi?). He replied: ‘He loved’ (amabat). The outflow of God’s love is at the origin of creation. And the masterpiece of God’s creation is the human being. Humans are Capax Dei and Capax amoris because they were created out of love. Therefore, he is constantly in dialogue with the Creator, his likes, himself, and other creatures. This dialogue constitutes a web with the human being at its centre, acting on and subject to the action of his environment. Despite being in relation with several entities, he/she remains simultaneously an indivisible unit, human, believing, Christian or Muslim, citizen, artist, etc.
The tendency in current teaching to specialise means that scholars look at every detail of the web. This is how we arrived at the terms ‘interreligious dialogue’, ‘social dialogue’, ‘cultural dialogue’, ‘intercultural dialogue’, ‘dialogue of life’, ‘dialogue of works’, and so on.
Before Vatican II, the Church had a self-referential outlook. She considered herself a substitute for the Kingdom of God, while many members remained by the wayside. St. Pope John XXIII deserves credit for awakening the Church’s conscience to the fact that she was closed in and inviting her to open her doors and windows. His successor, Pope Paul VI, asked the Church to enter into dialogue as a proper form of action and live up to her identity as an instrument of salvation for all. Saint Paul VI wanted the Church to once again become the centre of the network of relationships by re-establishing dialogue with humanity in general, since everything human touches the Church and dialogue with monotheistic believers, with all Christians and within the Church itself.
What do we mean by intercultural and interreligious dialogue?
By intercultural dialogue, we mean the following attitudes:
-Openness to a plural world: considering oneself as an element among many others;
-Having a positive view of others who are different from ourselves: getting rid of prejudices and seeing others as people with values;
-Accepting to learn from others: looking at others as complementary to oneself;
-Respecting others in their differences: let others be themselves without wanting them to be how we want them to be. The other becomes a gift to be received and not a threat.
Interreligious dialogue is a quest for Truth. Neither I nor the other person possesses the Truth. It is something that emerges in the intersection of our discourses. The Truth is God himself: he is not the prerogative of any religious tradition or theology. He reveals himself to everyone in ways that human intelligence cannot fathom.
As witnesses to God’s love, how can we address the issue of intercultural and interreligious dialogue?
By listening to each other, we can enter more deeply into the knowledge of the mystery. We should approach dialogue like Moses before the burning bush: removing our prejudices about others and allowing ourselves to be instructed by the All Other. To sum up the meaning of the verb ‘to dialogue’, Pope Francis uses the following verbs: approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and finding common ground. (Fratelli Tutti, 198).
In the light of the Gospel, how can we promote universal values that transcend cultural and religious differences?
Jesus is the model for engaging in dialogue. He reached out to the pagans and discovered in them a ‘great faith’ that he had not found in those deemed to have it. Dialogue is an act of love that draws us out of ourselves and towards the other, who initially was seen as a stranger but eventually became a brother. Pope Francis says: ‘Those who dialogue are benevolent, recognising and respecting the other’. It’s a journey from ‘us and them’ to a fraternal ‘we’.
How can we encourage creating an environment conducive to peaceful coexistence and collaboration between different communities?
Is peace the aim of dialogue? Peace is the consequence of the attitude of those who sincerely seek the Truth. Dialogue is, therefore, the vital element that fosters harmony in God’s creation, differentiating between day and night, heaven and earth, dry land and sea, man and woman, and so on. These differences are not antagonistic opposites but complements. Cardinal Lavigerie had a clear vision of the complementarity of differences when he warned the first novices: ‘I would not keep any of you who did not have the same love for all the members of your Society, whatever their nationality’. Our Founder thus made our Society a laboratory for intercultural dialogue, a sign of the Kingdom.
Let it be clear that we do not enter into dialogue with a spirit of dogmatism. We need to have an open mind ready to give our point of view, welcome the point of view of the other with respect, and, above all, detect the transcendent value of both.
By: Pascal Kapilimba, M.Afr.