FACULTY LEADER
Chester Gillis
Chester Gillis is the Dean of Georgetown College and the Founding Director of the Program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue within the...
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RELATED PUBLICATIONS
May 2000
January 1993
RELATED EVENTS
May 23, 2012
December 6, 2011
April 11, 2011
AT THE CENTER
RELATED RESOURCES: INTERFAITH
World Methodist Council Statement of Association with the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
Publication
Publication
The Church and Interreligious Dialogue
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Roman Catholic Church has been a key player in interreligious and interfaith dialogue. The Center examines the Church’s interaction with other religious traditions as well as the challenges posed by increasing cultural and religious pluralism at the local, national, and international levels.
RELATED PROJECTS
Catholic-Evangelical DialogueThe Berkley Center is a sponsor of the Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue on the Common Good/Public Policy, inaugurated at Georgetown in April 2008. Two of America's most prominent religious leaders, Pastor Rick Warren and Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, convened discussions focused on how Catholics and evangelicals can more wisely bring faith to bear on public life, especially regarding issues relating to respect for life and ending poverty. Georgetown participants include President John J. DeGioia, John Borelli, special assistant to the president for interreligious dialogue, and the Center's Chester Gillis. Prominent evangelicals include Richard Cizik, then vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Michael Gerson, Washington Post columnist and former speech writer and advisor to President George W. Bush. The dialogue reconvened in March 2009 at Eastern University, a prominent Baptist institution.
Nostra Aetate Lecture Series
The Nostra Aetate Lecture Series, sponsored by the Office of the President, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the publication of Nostra Aetate (In our age) by the Second Vatican Council. It brought distinguished speakers to campus to discuss the place of interreligious and interfaith dialogue and understanding in the contemporary world. As a Catholic and Jesuit institution working in the spirit of Nostra Aetate, Georgetown takes seriously the task of building bridges between communities of faith and religious traditions. Past speakers include Fr. Hans Kung, Dr. Sayyed Nasr, and Rabbi David Rosen. The Berkley Center was a co-sponsor of the series.
The Nostra Aetate Lecture Series, sponsored by the Office of the President, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the publication of Nostra Aetate (In our age) by the Second Vatican Council. It brought distinguished speakers to campus to discuss the place of interreligious and interfaith dialogue and understanding in the contemporary world. As a Catholic and Jesuit institution working in the spirit of Nostra Aetate, Georgetown takes seriously the task of building bridges between communities of faith and religious traditions. Past speakers include Fr. Hans Kung, Dr. Sayyed Nasr, and Rabbi David Rosen. The Berkley Center was a co-sponsor of the series.
Religion and Religions Seminar SeriesHow do religions interact with one another in the context of religious pluralism? What are the prospects and pitfalls of interreligious and interfaith dialogue in the contemporary world? Over the course of the 2008-2009 academic year, the Berkley Center's program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue sponsored a series of presentations by Georgetown faculty addressing these questions. An ongoing theme was whether and how interreligious dialogue sheds new light on the category of religion, advances our understanding of it, makes it more complicated, or diminishes the claims of particular religions.