Interfaith Dialogue - Different Perspectives - Book By Dharam Singh

Foreword To The Book 'Interfaith Dialogue - Different Perspectives'

Religious pluralism is a fact of human existential situation in the modern-day world. In the past people lived secure in their small and isolated religious groups, little concerned with the issues of plurality of religions and the allied theological and social problems. New developments in the fields of transport and communication have turned this world into a small global village where man is destined to live in a religiously and culturally pluralistic society. For a harmonious co-existence in such a social structure, it is necessary that we try to understand and appreciate the faiths of others. We must not get fixed on one way as the only way because as we do so, our consciousness stops developing. Interfaith dialogue is the best way to understand and appreciate other religions as well as to remove ignorance and dispel prejudices against them. It makes us aware that all of us at times fall short of the ideals of our own tradition and that we must not compare our ideals with the practices of other people. Instead we should try to identity some shared moral values while simultaneously celebrating plurality of religions.

I am glad that the Professor Harbans Singh Department of Encyclopaedia of Sikhism and the World Congress of Faiths (England) collaborated together to organize on 29-30 January 2002 a two-day international seminar so as to discuss and highlight the role and contribution of interfaith work to social harmony and world peace. Dr. Dharam Singh has done a good job in organising the seminar and now compiling and editing the scholarly papers presented at the seminar into a volume. I am sure the book will be of benefit to the academics and general reader.