Source: GuelphMercury.com
http://news.guelphmercury.com/Life/article/368611
Darrol Bryant was born into a time of conflict, a time when the world was at war.
And growing up in the United States in the years following the Second World War, he became acutely aware of the unspeakable horrors that had defined this period in history.
"What happened to the Jews of Europe in the Second World War . . . has haunted me from the time I remember being conscious of what was going on in the world," says Bryant, a longtime professor of religion and culture at the University of Waterloo's Renison College, which was founded in 1959 by members of the Anglican Church.
Seeing the Nazi concentration camps years later was an "overwhelming" experience that he says helped to shape the beliefs that would influence his work for years to come.
"I felt then, and I feel today, that Christianity was implicated in those events, even though the twisted mind that lies behind them has nothing to do with Christianity," Bryant says.
"Religion has, over the centuries, contributed to the failure to build bridges of understanding between different peoples and groups within the human family."
"War breaks out when people quit talking to each other. Conflict is what happens when we refuse to engage one another."
Bryant, 66, has long been interested in facilitating exchanges between people of different faiths. On the day Renison College feted him on his formal retirement a year ago, he announced the creation of the Centre for Dialogue and Spirituality in the World's Religions.
Based at the college, the centre engages in research and provides opportunities for public education through lectures and workshops. It had its official launch in June and has already produced two educational DVDs.