Dialogue

Today's discussion in class spurred on some old thoughts that got mixed up with some new ones. In the discussion of interreligious dialogue and its role within Christianity, I was reminded of a portion of a book I read by Martin Buber a long long time ago. Buber describes dialogue as not even having to occur within the bounds of words, but can happen even when two people just barely meet eyes. Dialogue occurs when we encounter another person and are fully engaged with their "otherness". Ya, what in the world does that mean? I understand this to be that we are in dialogue with another when we are both participating in the same reality. But Grant, aren't we all participating in the same reality? I'm glad you asked that. I would say not necessairly so. The reality we each participate in is conditoned by and limited to our own surroundings. Of course we all share some same conditions, i.e., gravity, death, hunger. But there are others we do not share. Loneliness, the joy of having children, losing a spouse, wealth, poverty... There is a myriad of experience that people face giving their perception of reality a slight variance from the guy sitting next to them. This slight difference becomes even more particular when we realize that these differences are also compounded by their relativity to each of our other slight differences. What a tangled web of experience we all live in! Yet this is what distinguishes us each as unique. So, back to dialogue. What does this mean as a Christian. Well, Paul Tillich talks about the Gospel as the New Reality and of evangelism as being an invitation into this New Reality. Adding this up, I am believing that Christian Dialogue is evangelism, given the definitions we discussed here. No longer should we think of evangelism as propositional but instead, it is an invitation into participating in our New Reality of Jesus Christ. We do not need to corroborate propostional truth claims about historical, philosophical, or scientific Jesus. Our truth claim is the changed life which is the New Reality we participate in, and evangelism is to invite others into this with us by participating in their reality as well. Good Luck....