Beyond Holy Wars · Christoffer H. Grundmann

The 9/11 Al-Qaeda attacks against the United States shocked the world, not only because of their violence, but also because they shattered the illusion that “holy wars” belonged to the past. Far from disappearing, “holy wars” remain a reality in today’s world and threaten global peace as never before.

In this volume, Christoffer Grundmann argues in favour of religious literacy and interreligious dialogue. First, he seeks to recover an adequate understanding of religion by showing the incompatibility between abstract concepts of religion and religions as they are actually lived. Grundmann therefore proposes understanding religion as a lived relationship with the Ultimate.

Since interreligious dialogue is a form of communication about the diverse ways of relating to the Ultimate, the philosophy of encounter and dialogical thinking —primarily rooted in the Jewish tradition and religiously grounded, with their personalistic dimension— emerge here as particularly well suited to such communication.

Even though interreligious encounter involves risks, Christians can only engage in it fearlessly, Grundmann argues, because they trust that the risen Christ will reveal himself anew for who he truly is, wherever and whenever Christians take part in dialogue with people of other faiths.