Ideational Foundations of Transcultural Communication 6: Development and Prospects for Inter-religious Dialogue

The course is focused on the current issues of the inter-religious dialog. It will provide a historical overview of the relations among religions. It will present the dialogue as the real alternative to the ideology of inherent conflict of religions. Reflection of the inter-religious dialogue will be carried out in the context of theological comparative studies. The Second Vatican Council represents for the Catholic Church a real turning point in the relations to non-Christian religions. Another topic of the course thus will be an introduction to the postconciliar development in the religious dialogue. The lectures will focus on the dialogue among monotheistic religions, nevertheless the relations of Christianity to the religions of Asia and natural religion will not be left out. The course will also present different understanding of the “otherness” in different religious traditions and spiritualities. It will try to outline possible development of the interfaith dialogue for the future.

The main aim of the course is to introduce students to the issues of inter-religious dialogue and provide a historical overview of the interfaith relations and reflection of religious dialogue in the context of theological comparative studies. It will focus on the evaluation of relations of the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions before and after the Second Vatican Council. It will try to map out the ongoing dialogue between Christianity and other monotheistic religions and between Christianity and the religions of Asia and natural religion.