Interreligious Dialogue and Cultural Change

The challenges and changes that take place when religions move from one cultural context to another present unique opportunities for interreligious dialogue. In new cultural environments religions are not only propelled to enter into dialogue with the traditional or dominant religion of a particular culture; religions are also invited to enter into dialogue with one another about cultural changes. In this volume, scholars from different religious traditions discuss the various types of dialogue that have emerged from the process of acculturation. While the phenomenon of religious acculturation has generally focused on Western religions in non-Western contexts, this volume deals predominantly with the acculturation in the United States. It thus offers a fresh look at the phenomenon of acculturation while also lifting up an often implicit or ignored dimension of interreligious dialogue.

Catherine Cornille is Professor of Comparative Theology at Boston College. She is author of The Im-Possibility of Interreligious Dialogue (2008) and managing editor of the series Christian Commentaries on Non-Christian Sacred Texts. She is editor of Song Divine (2006), Many Mansions? (2002), and A Universal Faith? (1992).

Stephanie Corigliano is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Theology at Boston College, working in the area of Hindu-Christian dialogue.