An
encounter
of
commitments

Questions like these were already on the agenda of the global mission conference in Edinburgh in 1910. But it was only in the 1970s, especially under the influence of minority Asian Christian churches, that interfaith dialogue came to be a priority concern of the WCC.

In encouraging and assisting churches in their relations with Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim neighbours, the World Council has underscored the importance of genuine dialogue between persons in community rather than abstract reflection on comparative religion.

For some Christians, the theological issues surrounding interfaith dialogue are deeply troubling; and sharp differences about the relation of dialogue and evangelism have surfaced in mission conferences and WCC assemblies.

Acknowledging the tension between dialogue and witness, the WCC's world mission conference in San Antonio in 1989 insisted that the two must be held together:

Dialogue between people of different faiths is spurious unless it proceeds from the acceptance and expression of faith commitment. Indeed life with people of other faiths and ideologies is by its very nature an encounter of commitments. In dialogue we are invited to listen in openness to the possibility that the God we know in Jesus Christ may encounter us also in the lives of our neighbours of other faiths.