Guest Lecture by Fr. M.D. Thomas
Comments Off Sr. Shalini Mulackal PBVM
Fr. Thomas is the national director for the Commission for religious Harmony, CBCI. the theme of his lecture was Harmony of Faiths for Social Integration.
The importance of inter-religious dialogue is evident from the fact that there are around 36 dialogue/harmony centres in India. Fr. Thomas explained why ‘harmony’ is a better word than ‘dialogue.’ And further enumerated ten shifts that have been taking place in the area of inter religious dialogue, namely, a shift from theological to multi-disciplinary approach, theoretical to practical, inter-religious to multi-religious, religions to non-religions, purely religious to multi-dimensional, Religion-centeredness to life centeredness, exclusiveness to inclusiveness, hierarchical to participative, paralleling to networking and from dialogue to harmony. Quoting John Paul II, Fr. Thomas said, “Religion has to be what God intended to be, a source of goodness, harmony and peace.” Religions are not contradictory but are mutually complementary to each other. Dialogue should promote mutuality because it is being present to the other or being a mirror to the other, and mutually getting transformed into the Divine in the process. Since there are different contexts within India, he emphasised the need to have constant dialogue between the context and concept. The goal of inter-religious dialogue is to promote communal harmony and a secular perspective where all the religions are equally respected. What is important is to promote the good values present in the other traditions. Our collective duty is to make society a better, more inclusive, and a more just one.
