Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies Looks to the Future of Interreligious Dialogue

June 10, 2005

Source: The Tidings Corporation

http://www.the-tidings.com/2005/0610/buddhist.htm

On June 10, 2005 The Tidings Corporation reported, "interreligious dialogue nurtured by Pope John Paul II must continue to evolve under Pope Benedict XVI's papacy or global ethnic and religious conflicts will escalate, said Buddhist and Christian leaders attending an international religious conference at Loyola Marymount University June 3-8. As one of the first major interreligious meetings since the start of Pope Benedict's pontificate, the seventh International Meeting of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies drew 130 participants from eastern and western faith traditions discussing ways to increase mutual understanding and appreciation. Conference participants in a June 5 panel offering perspectives on religious dialogue and Pope Benedict expressed both reservations and cautious optimism about the future of interreligious relations. Panelist Rosemary Radford Ruether, a professor at the Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, said interreligious dialogue boosted at Vatican II by the 'Declaration of the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions' has born enormous fruit."