World Christianity in Dialogue with World Religions

Abstract

Even if the study of Christianity’s interreligious and intercultural dialogues is associated with concerns found primarily in the non-Western worlds, the two forms of dialogues actually have their origins in the Western academy. For Christianity, interreligious dialogue is a response to the plurality of religions while intercultural dialogue responds to the cultural plurality within the Christian tradition itself. They are, respectively, Christianity’s engagement with what has come to be known as World Religions and Western Christianity’s engagement with what has come to be known as World Christianity. The present article looks at the genealogy of both these engagements and explores their implications for Christian theology, offering a glimpse into the different methods theologians employ today in apprehending the new situation.