Reflections of a Recovering Exclusivist: Journey to Inclusivity

By: Ayanda Nxusani

November 21, 2016

Sixth Annual President’s Challenge: Reflections on Interfaith Service in Higher Education

When I first heard about interfaith dialogue I was genuinely nervous about it. I kept thinking, "Am I supposed to let go of my religious convictions?" I wondered if dialogue meant I accept a watered-down version of the Gospel message. I had my reservations about it and there are things that I still wrestle with, but after engaging in honest and meaningful dialogue, I believe it should be the new normal.


As a student at Hartford Seminary, I wrestled with how I could stand firm in my convictions and still be able to engage interfaith dialogue as a daily part of my life. Dialogue, I realized, is an important part of building communities, and we cannot do otherwise in a world that is so painfully divided.

Dialogue, as Wesley Ariarajah writes, “calls for an assessment of the theological significance of people of other faiths. Its emphasis is not on religions or systems or ideas, it emphasis falls on people. It says that people are not simply objects for conversation. The histories of peoples in Asia or Africa, it says, are not outside the scope of God’s activity.” Dialogue is necessary to shift the narrative of arrogance and allow each to see what God is doing in other peoples.

Ariarajah asks, “How could we talk about God as though only we had something to say on the experience of being touched by God’s grace? How could we talk about mission, as if it is to a people whose lives had not been touched by God? How could we study the History of Religion as of it were an academic subject when, in fact, it was the source of throbbing, life in the hearts and minds of our neighbors, shaping their views and giving purpose to their whole life?” When it comes to religious plurality, we should allow ourselves to see plurality of religions as the result the varied ways in which God has related to people and nations and as a manifestation of the richness of humanity.

Dr. Ariarajah also reminds us that we ought to “recognize God’s creative work in the seeking for religious truth among the people of other faiths.” In trusting and believing that God is at work in all of humanity, that God is fully involved in our seeking of truth and coming to know of the real existence of who she is. It is in that knowledge of that reality that we lean to dialogue.

Professor John Hick's metaphor of the “Alluvial Plain” aptly captures where we are located. He says each religious tradition had been as a large group of people marching down a long valley, singing and playing their own music. However, they were not aware that over the hill, there was another valley of people doing the same thing in their own languages, and on another valley, another group was doing the same. Once they all merge on the same plain, they all meet and ask what shall they make of each other, because they thought for a long time they were on their own.

Globalization has made us all to be in full sight of each other. We live in a global world that forces us to face each other each day. University campuses are a microcosm of the global world. Universities draw in youths from all lifestyles that seek to engage the world in new and fresh ways. Campuses are the micro-alluvial plain, where different beliefs and different nationalities come to meet each other often for the first time. It is here that interfaith and intercultural dialogue is most necessary.

The role of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge is necessary as we have all reached the alluvial plain, and we need to make something of each other. Arrogance gives no room for dialogue and mutual understanding. Interfaith dialogue is the way of humility. It stresses the need to listen and to learn from the other. It seeks to break the walls that allow us to act as if the truth only belongs to us. Dialogue is for building lasting and holistic communities that are safe for all. The President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge recognizes the need for and importance of deep, meaningful dialogue. Moreover, even as practitioners of dialogue, we must be careful to not be arrogant in dialogue, that even in the pursuit of dialogue we must remain humble.
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