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BOOK REVIEW: Exploring path to interfaith dialogue David Mosser, Jun 26, 2009
By David Mosser Special Contributor
Interfaith Dialogue at the Grass Roots Rebecca Kratz Mays, editor Ecumenical Press, 2009 142 pages, paperback
Interfaith Dialogue at the Grass Roots offers a guide to public forums across the U.S., where Christian, Jewish and Islamic communities blend in new and unprecedented ways.
Of course, American Catholics and Protestants have shared thoughts on theology for years. That conversation is often difficult, but things can be even stickier between global faiths, each with its own political, economic and social vitality.
Rebecca Mays, a Quaker teacher in Philadelphia, collected these essays to help people of goodwill through this inferno of religious conviction and emotion. She invites congregations and their leaders to engage the “the religious other” in a search for common ground.
The Muslim, Jewish and Christian contributors all believe this course of action will lead toward peace among faiths. Our differences, they say, are less important than a more fundamental agreement between all sides: that we fulfill our created purpose when we live in faith and worship God, instead of fending for ourselves and making our own ethical rules.
Khaleel Mohammed, a professor of religion at San Diego State University, says in his essay that, “the barriers to dialogue are presuppositions, prejudices, and cultural gaps.” While many thinking persons will recognize this as a cliché, Dr. Mohammed at least suggests several practical remedies.
Another useful essay by members of the Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core urges young people to write and tell stories of their faith to help them understand each others’ traditions and also to strengthen a sense of their own religious identities.
Interfaith Dialogue is an essential read for people of faith in cities where churches, mosques and synagogues abide as neighbors. Here they can learn ways to undo the damage done by hate mongers and fringe hecklers, and how to involve the greater community in their quest.
The Rev. Mosser is senior pastor of First UMC in Arlington, Texas.
Of course, American Catholics and Protestants have shared thoughts on theology for years. That conversation is often difficult, but things can be even stickier between global faiths, each with its own political, economic and social vitality. 
