This is a book about dialogue, specifically about the dialogue between religions. But it is also a book formed in dialogue. I seek to bring together the two sides of my experience as an academic teacher and pastoral worker: on the one hand, the extraordinary world of the religions that is such an important feature of contemporary Western culture; on the other, my spiritual formation and religious practice which has acted as the primary motivation for everything that I do as a Jesuit priest. The book can be read both as a practical correlate to what I have written elsewhere on the theology of religions, and, at a more personal level, as a reflection on my experience 'on the streets', as it were. I am guided throughout by the conviction that Christian faith comes truly alive when it is communicated, brought into dialogue with what is 'other', different, even strange. God's own story, what God seeks to reveal of God's own self through the witness of the Bible, enters into dialogue with the story of one Jesuit who seeks to respond to the mystery of a loving God through the lens of Ignatian spirituality. The twelve linked chapters form a personal introduction, with a degree of autobiography and illustrative anecdote, to an interior dialogue between Christian faith and the challenging context of contemporary religious pluralism.

Michael Barnes is the author of Religions in Conversation (SPCK 1989) , God East and West (SPCK 1991), Theology and the Dialogue of Religions (CUP 2002), Interreligious Learning: Dialogue, Spirituality and the Christian Imagination (CUP 2012), Waiting on Grace: a Theology of Dialogue (OUP 2020).

About the Author
Michael Barnes is the author of Religions in Conversation (SPCK 1989), God East and West (SPCK 1991), Theology and the Dialogue of Religions (CUP 2002), Interreligious Learning: Dialogue, Spirituality and the Christian Imagination (CUP 2012) Waiting on Grace: a Theology of Dialogue (OUP 2020).

Reviews

'This is the story of one Jesuit who seeks to respond to the mystery of a loving God through the lens of Ignatian Spirituality. The author brings his expertise as a theologian and specialist in Asian religions together with his active engagement with people from other faith traditions in a reflection on his own personal experience, his 'ongoing pilgrimage'.

-- Eileen Quinn Knight * Catholic profiles *

Dialoguing with a difference -this is a book both about dialogue and also formed through dialogue.

Irish News
June 2021

-- William Scholes * Faith Matters, The Irish News *

'... a most interesting book... an endless, but enriching exploration.'

The Irish Catholic
June 2021

-- Peter Costello * The Irish Catholic *

'stimulating and challenging...the book is filled with energy and texture'

Thinking Faith

-- Tom McGuinness SJ * Thinking Faith *

'...harmoniously blends theory and practice, doctrine and lived experience of interreligious dialogue. To a world lacerated by hatred and religious fundamentalism, this book could not have been more timely!

* Gregorianum *



Book Information
ISBN 9781788123440
Author Michael Barnes
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Messenger Publications
Publisher Messenger Publications