Religious Diversity, Interreligious Dialogue, and Alternative Religious Futures: Challenges for an Interdependent World

This article covers many topics relating to the development and evolution of religions, their interactions (both negative and positive) with each other, and the challenge of finding unity amidst the diversity of the world's many cultural and religious traditions in our increasingly interdependent world. Topics covered include: religion as a force for war or peace; a spectrum of possible perspectives within all religions; changing male-female images of divinity in different religions over time; mythology as a link between our outer lives in the world and the inner life of the spirit; principles for conducting interreligious dialogue, areas of common ground between religions; seven alternative scenarios on the future of religions and their interactions; and final conclusions.