Religionline

O que é o diálogo?

Do livro
A BRIDGE TO
BUDDHIST-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE
, de Seiichi Yagi e Leonard Swidler:
"When we talk of dialogue today we mean an intellectual, spiritual encounter between two or more persons or groups that is different from what these encounters usually have been in the past. In the past they were confrontation, argument, debate, subjection, convert-making, or the like. In brief, each of us came to the encounter from a position of assumed superiority; we came not to learn but to teach-because we had the truth, and to the extent the others differed from us they were in error: Such, in large measure, has been the history of the past encounters between religions and ideologies1. That, however, is not what is meant today by dialogue. Rather, dialogue is an encounter between two or more persons or groups of differing views with the primary purpose of learning, not teaching. I come to dialogue with my partner not from a position of assumed superiority in the matter under discussion, but rather I come as one who hopes to learn from my partner, and change, reorder my life accordingly. Precisely here is the essential difference between dialogue and all other types of intellectual, spiritual encounters."