"Our lives, which I like to think of as fiery episodes of Godʼs being and presence, are like sparks of divine light."
"Our being here bears witness to Godʼs presence."
Chapter 13: Creating a community of Conversation
"In conversation we not only learn more about what someone else believes, we learn more about what we believe and we are likely to discover along the way that our doctrines of belief are less important than our experiences of faith."
"God is the being that makes it possible that Allah is God and Yahweh is God."
"Listening requires a greater sense of security than talking. Listening, not talking, is the key to learning."
"In a world that has become dangerous, in part, because we have allowed fear to displace our better wisdom, one clear antidote to the violence will be found in our willingness to engage in open, honest, candid conversations about our differing faiths."
"If one is deeply committed tot he absoluteness of certain beliefs, it is a reasonable, perhaps even necessary, conclusion that those persons who deny such belief are infidels."
"One may conclude that this human species with its emergent religious consciousness is simply one more stage in the evolutionary development of the universe."
"Augustine described evil as the absence of good just as darkness is the absence of light and injustice is the absence of justice, hatred is the absence of love."
"The way of compassion, which we have seen emerge in all of the worldʼs faiths, transforms, not only intellectual beliefs or our external behavior; it transforms every relationship of life. Relating transcends believing and behaving."
The seven common threads for a new garment of understanding:
1. The first common thread is a simple one: We all have a story.
2. A second common thread, in every faith, is that life cannot be defined solely by the boundaries of life and death.
3. A third common thread woven among all our religions pertains to the human struggle to cope with pain and suffering.
4. A fourth common thread is that every world religion is characterized by sacred
places, holy moments and sacred literature.
5. A fifth common thread is that all our religions have to deal with the crippling
partisanship that scrambles our faiths.
6. A sixth common thread is compassion.
7. A seventh common thread with which our conversations of faith might be woven is that all of our faiths provide their followers with a pathway of hope.
Read more excerpts from this book at www.isgodachristian.com
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