Religion as a Factor of Intercultural Dialogue

Religion and intercultural dialogue are of the highest importance for the modern world in all respects, from entirely practical to purely academic. The authors show, first, that religion as such is not a cause of violence nor a destructor or stopper of the (intercultural) dialogue, and that the path of dialogue leads through religion, and not through its marginalization or even elimination. Second, the origin of conflict is not a cultural diversity or differentiation but rather a lack or absence of true cultural differentiation. It follows that the role of religion is crucial because cultures have a religious origin. Many other wide spread convictions are disclosed as mistaken. As such, and because of its modern interdisciplinary approach, "dominated" by humanities, the book brings a valuable collection of essays of authors of mainly Central European origin.

Professor Robert Petkovšek is the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana.
Research Professor Bojan Žalec is the Head of the Institute of Philosophy and Social Ethics at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana.