Abstract

I advocate inter-faith dialogue which takes place in grassroots settings, between people in day-to-day settings, throughout extensive time periods. This dialogue takes seriously the questions of faith which separate different religious traditions as well as the fact that participants coming to the dialogue firmly believe in the veracity or superiority of their own religious tradition over others. Yet, instead of trying to demonstrate or convince of the veracity or superiority of their own religious tradition, participants engage in the dialogue by encouraging and supporting their counterparts to strive for philosophical consistency and religious adequacy within their respective traditions. In the process, the participants develop mutual respect and goodwill toward their counterparts, perhaps even provide their own religious tradition as a possible candidate for the others to take up when occasions arise. The ultimate goal of this kind of dialogue, however, is to arrive at a religious tradition that best approximates the ultimate truth or divine reality. I draw from Alasdair MacIntyre’s insights on rationality of ethical traditions, adapting them to the context of religious dialogue, and argue for a religious dialogue that aims at establishing the rationality of religious traditions.