ABSTRACT

This chapter suggests ways in which interfaith activity could be more effective. Such activity needs to involve a wider range of believers, especially traditionalists of different faiths. It seeks to clarify a method by which people of many traditions can engage each other in discussion of pressing moral problems. And public awareness of the importance of interfaith work should be increased by appropriate educational work and by engaging in public debate. The particular faith commitment of participants helps to ensure that the dialogue is concerned with truth. Since the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions, practical concerns seem to have been uppermost in interfaith activity. This is one reason why there is a need, as Bruce Grelle argues, for more people who are engaged in both interfaith activity and in comparative religious ethics to be "public intellectuals". Grelle, however, makes important suggestions about ways in which scholars of comparative religious ethics could engage in public discourse.