Theología latinoamericana y pluralism religioso by Patricio Merino Beas, and: Interreligiöse Empathie lernen: Impulse für den trialogisch orientierten Religionsunterricht by Herbert Stettberger, Max Bernlochner (review)

What is the future of interfaith dialogue? The two works reviewed here explore core issues shaping that future. “Secularism” (interpreting human experience exclusively in terms of this world) and “pluralism” (mutually exclusive truth claims co-existing within the same society) have shaped interfaith exchanges over the last century. The human inclination to divide our social world into “us” and “them” has fascinated scholars from a variety of disciplines, from evolutionary biology through the social sciences to history and literature. Some suggest the primary function of religions is to mediate the boundaries between us and them. In pre-modern societies, religious/ethnic identities were geographically determined. Most folks were born, married, raised families, and died within the same ethnic/religious community. When different identities came into contact, the result was usually violent conflict aiming at conquest and/or conversion. Talk might seek to avoid violence, but still aimed at conquest or conversion. In European societies, revulsion at incessant religious wars helped promote an emerging trust in the power of enlightened reason. Intellectual elites decried the conflicts associated with religious faith as they sought new means of promoting peace and progress. Western democracies have largely embraced a secular model for civil government and coexistence.

Events over the last year make it clear that some groups still feel that violence is the only way they can assert their own group’s identity and truth-claims. Both of the works reviewed here attempt to provide constructive alternatives to such conflict. Both share the conviction that how we think about “the other” shapes how we treat him or her.

Stettberger and Bernlochner have edited a collection of twelve essays exploring the possibility of learning empathy for the religious “other,” specifically among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Germany. They propose “empathy” as a basic category for comparative theology and explore practical issues involved in promoting more positive understanding, perception, and appreciation of the religious other.

Stettberger notes how interfaith marriages provide an image of the varied responses to religious pluralism. In some cases, one of the parties converts; in others, each tries to maintain her or his own religious identity, which becomes more problematic when raising children. In an increasing percentage of interfaith marriages, neither partner maintains any meaningful religious practice.

The authors in Stettberger and Bernlochner’s collection wish to promote growth from knowledge to empathy, often through actions that foster relationships. They note the importance of recognizing cultural differences in expressing religious values, an interesting overlap with the importance given to “popular religion” in Latin America. They also wrestle with discerning the responsibility of faith communities and the responsibility of government in providing programing to promote tolerance.

In his volume, Beas describes the evolution of a pluralist theology of liberation in Latin America before offering a critical analysis of its potential from the perspective of the Roman Catholic magisterium. Starting with the theology of liberation, which gave popular religion a new importance in the search for liberating praxis, Beas explores a spirituality of liberation, which, in its option for the poor, had to deal with issues of inculturation and the encounter with the other. Ultimately, Beas argues that the Latin American experience, along with the theologies rooted in it, can make a unique contribution to interfaith dialogue through an emphasis on discipleship and siblinghood.

Beas acknowledges that Latin American theology has evolved in an environment of Catholic hegemony; interestingly, the authors in Settberger and Bernlocher’s work represent the traditionally Catholic areas of Germany. Thomas Jefferson spoke of “the universal spirit of religious intolerance, inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practiced by all when in power” (Letter to Mordecai Noah...