Healing Interreligious Relationships

Dr Lefebure explores some aspects of the history of Christian intolerance and discusses some strategies to shape healthier relations as we look ahead. Christianity has had a tragic and violent relationship to all of the world’s religious traditions, and this is particularly true of those religions with whom it is most closely bound in history and belief: Judaism and Islam. These three religions share many important beliefs and values, but for centuries Christians have repeatedly vilified and demonized Jews and Muslims. In more recent centuries, when increasing numbers of Christians came into contact with Native Americans, Buddhists, and Hindus, all too often Christians repeated often the age-old patterns of intolerance, defamation and violence in new contexts. These actions are profoundly contrary to the spirit and teaching of Jesus himself, and challenge Christians to undertake a critical reexamination of the tradition, the goal of this article.