Healthy cultures: New challenges for interreligious dialogue

Abstract

Health or disease embraces the whole person: body, psyche, and spirit. This study supports the position that these three human dimensions are deeply interconnected. Since religion is an important aspect of culture, it plays a critical role in endorsing either dialogue or violence toward oneself and the others. In today’s era of globalization, and the “economy of inclusion”, interreligious dialogue became the topic of great concern. It is only when we meet the people of other religion that we realize their religion is heavily entwined with a particular culture; two things which cannot be easily separated from each other. Following Charles Taylor, the starting point for the examination of interreligious and intercultural dialogue in this paper is: “All human cultures that have animated whole societies over some considerable stretch of time have something important to say to all human beings.” Obstacles towards healthy cultures, as well as towards effective interreligious dialogue – in both cases it is a path of nonviolence (Patañjali) – are ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion, and inordinate clinging to life.