ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the holistic engagement approach called “cross-cultural religious literacy.” Cross-cultural religious literacy is a set of skills (evaluation, negotiation, and communication) rooted in a set of competencies (in understanding oneself, understanding the religious “other,” and understanding the context of potential collaboration). These competencies and skills contribute to, and are refined by, practical experiences of mutual engagement, embodied and lived in specific contexts. Cross-cultural religious literacy is a means toward the ends of “covenantal pluralism.” Moving beyond mere arms-length tolerance of diversity, covenantal pluralism calls for principled engagement across lines of deep difference. A world of covenantal pluralism is one in which each person not only has equal rights, but, as a function of common civic responsibility, also pledges to engage, respect, and protect the other—albeit without necessarily lending moral equivalency to the other’s beliefs.
