Future 500 | Retrospect: Summer Workshop āHas Dialogue Failed? Towards a New Concept of Interreligious Engagementā
Interreligious dialogue has built much of its legitimacy on an unexamined syllogism: that contact generates understanding, understanding generates trust, and trust eventually yields peace. This sequence is breaking down in practice. The Russian Orthodox Church’s theological framing of the war in Ukraine, the collapse of dialogue spaces following 7 October and the subsequent war in Gaza, and the rise of antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism across Europe have exposed how readily encounter can coexist with, or provide cover for, ongoing harm. Rafael Tyszblat of our partner organisation Connecting Actions stated: āLooking for common ground too soon is often a result of not being honest when it comes to power dynamics. Peace cannot be achieved through good intentions alone.ā What is required is not a further format, but the willingness to interrogate whom a given space of encounter actually serves.
