In the context of religious plurality, Dialogue means all positive and constructive inter-religious/inter-faith relations with individuals and communities of other faiths which are directed at mutual understanding and enrichment.

FORMS OF DIALOGUE :

1. Dialogue of Life: where people strive to live in an open and neighborly spirit, sharing their joys and sorrows, their human problems and pre-occupations

2. Dialogue of Action: in which Christian and others collaborate for the integral development and liberation of people.

3. Dialogue of Theological Exchange: where specialists seek to deepen their understanding of their respective religious heritages, and to appreciate each others’ spiritual values.

4. Dialogue of Religious Experience: where persons, rooted in their own religious traditions, share their spiritual riches, for instance, with regard to prayer and contemplation, faith and ways of searching God or the Absolute.

DIPOSITIONS FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE:

1. A Balanced Attitude: They should neither be critical, but open and receptive. Unselfishness and impartiality, acceptance of differences and possible contradictions are presupposed. Dialogue partners engage together in commitment to truth and readiness to allow oneself to be transformed by the encounter.

2. Religious Conviction: Sincerity in this endeavor requires that each enters into it with the integrity of his or her own faith, and not laying aside religious convictions. Christians, while remaining firm in their belief that in Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and humanity (cf 1 Tim. 2:4-6), the fullness of revelation has been given to them, they must remember that God also manifested himself in some way to the followers of other religious traditions. Consequently, it is with receptive minds that they approach the convictions and values of others.

3. Openness to Truth: The fullness of truth received in Jesus Christ does not give individual Christians the guarantee that they have grasped that truth fully. While keeping their identity intact, Christians must be prepared to learn and to receive from others and through others the positive values of their traditions. Through dialogue, they may be moved to give up ingrained prejudices, to revise preconceived ideas, and even sometimes to allow the understanding of their faith to be purified.

OBSTACLES TO DIALOGUE:

1. Insufficient grounding in one’s own faith.

2. Insufficient knowledge and understanding of the belief and practices of other religions leading to a lack of appreciation for their significance  and even  at times to misrepresentations.

3. Cultural differences, arising from different levels of instruction, or from the use of different languages.

4. Socio-political factors or some burdens of the past.

5. Wrong understanding of the meaning of terms such as conversion, baptism, dialogue etc.

6. Self-sufficiency, lack of openness leading to defensive or aggressive attitudes.

7. A lack of conviction with regard to the value of inter-religious dialogue, which some may see as a task reserved for specialists, and others as a sign of weakness or even betrayal of truth.

8. Suspicion about the others’ motives in dialogue.

9. A polemical spirit when expressing religious convictions.

10. Intolerance, which is often aggravated by association with political, economic, racial and ethnic factors, a lack of reciprocity in a dialogue which can lead to frustration.

11. Certain features of the present religious climate, e.g. growing materialism, religious indifference, and the multiplication of religious sects which creates confusion and raises new problems.