Rhetoric Race and Religion
by Rajiv Malhotra
Huffington Post
In an earlier blog, I introduced the concept of mutual respect and why it is superior to the patronizing notion of “tolerance” that is typically celebrated at interfaith events. My recent book, “Being Different” (Harpercollins, 2011), is entirely about appreciating how traditions differ from one another rather than seeing them as the same. In parallel with these works, I have been in conversations and debates with numerous thinkers of traditions other than my own.
One such dialogue has been with Father Francis Clooney, a noted Jesuit theologian and a leading professor of Religion at Harvard. Clooney not only took a good deal of time in 2010 to read through my entire manuscript and write me his useful comments, he and I have also responded to each others public talks over the years and argued online. There have been agreements and disagreements, but always with mutual respect. I wish to reflect on how this experience relates to my overall approach to interfaith dialogues.
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