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Between them, Islam and Christianity represent over half the earth’s population. Their history of interaction, positive and negative, impacts widely still today. Contentious issues remain real enough, yet the story and ongoing reality of contemporary Christian-Muslim engagement is both exciting and encouraging.
Between them, Islam and Christianity represent over half the earth’s population. Their history of interaction, positive and negative, impacts widely still today. Contentious issues remain real enough, yet the story and ongoing reality of contemporary Christian-Muslim engagement is both exciting and encouraging.
Abstract
This chapter comprises a case study review of the origins and development of contemporary Christian engagement in interreligious dialogue during the 20th century, with special reference to the Vatican and the World Council of Churches (WCC) as key institutional expressions of, or within, World Christianity. It analyses five theological dynamics—contextual, communal, theocentric, responsive and salvific—which reflect a wider ecumenical theology for dialogue that, arguably, undergirds the very possibility of the relationship of World Christianity to other faiths. Inter alia, this paper identifies models of dialogue that have been employed by the WCC and the Vatican. These dynamics and models demonstrate ecumenical complementarity and so provide a base-line for ongoing global Christian engagement in interfaith relations and interreligious dialogue.