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Interactive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community-Building Handbook
A Practical Guide for Embracing the Growing Religious Pluralism in America "In the process of [interfaith] engagement, we discover … a world in which our faith is richer, deeper, and more contextualized, and God's very Self is seen in more of its fullness."
—from the Introduction This practical guide to the key methods and resources of the interfaith movement will help you effectively engage people of other faith traditions in order to increase understanding and acceptance in your community and beyond. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of interfaith leaders from the world’s many faith traditions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahá’í Faith, Jainism, Shinto, Sikh Faith, Taoism, Zoroastrianism—this comprehensive resource provides practical ideas for connecting with people of all faiths and backgrounds through common concerns and activities that promote respect and support. It enables communities rich with diversity to work together to create paths toward peace and justice.
—from the Introduction This practical guide to the key methods and resources of the interfaith movement will help you effectively engage people of other faith traditions in order to increase understanding and acceptance in your community and beyond. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of interfaith leaders from the world’s many faith traditions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahá’í Faith, Jainism, Shinto, Sikh Faith, Taoism, Zoroastrianism—this comprehensive resource provides practical ideas for connecting with people of all faiths and backgrounds through common concerns and activities that promote respect and support. It enables communities rich with diversity to work together to create paths toward peace and justice.
- GenresReligion
348 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 14, 2008
6 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 6, 2008
Inter Active Faith is a must have for any religious or governmental leader looking for the simple essential steps to bringing different cultures and religious groups together. We often over look situations and make issues so big, that the solution seems even bigger. Rev. Heckman and his contributors outline easy solutions for bringing peace and understanding to diverse communities. It boils down to three simple words—ask, talk, and listen. This book, while not a page turner, is definitely a great road map in bringing not just different religious groups together, but people of different cultures, races, and social groups as well. Now, more than ever, people are building stereo types on what the media says instead of sitting down with their neighbors and asking questions they are too afraid to ask, in fear that the person will be offended. These guidelines, while nothing new, will open the door of opportunity to learn. It still boils down to whether or not you have an open mind to follow through.
One thing that I did find different with this book was that it provides readers with concrete examples on activities to do with their diverse groups. The idea of focusing on the similarities of the religious stories and on the principals of each groups beliefs are the keys to success that many organizations lack. This book brought me back to a sermon preached by Andy Stanley when talking about the Christian Church and how Christians make church too hard. He used the example of trying to climb a ladder with the first few rungs of the ladder missing-hence making it impossible to reach those you aspired to learn from. As a society we often do the same thing. We think that we have to know all the stories—all the guts of a religion in order to understand how it works. That’s as far from the truth as possible. Rev. Heckman outlines several religious beliefs in the simplest terms and in turn gives you the first steps of seeing similarities. He essentially places the bottom rungs back on the ladder.
From cover to cover, Inter Active Faith provides common sense no nonsense steps on how to bring diverse communities together. While its focus is on religion, the same steps can be used to bring together different cultures and races and truly any group of people. Over all, the take home message is the best resource is you. You are essentially the only one who can make a difference by being willing to not only ask questions but to answer them as well and to not be offended even by the simplest questions. We live in a society ruled by media and if the media portrays the only the extremists of a cultural group, we tend to live in fear instead of freedom. If groups put to action and follow through with the steps outlined in Rev. Heckman’s book, they will find the success of living in harmony.
A note about me—I found that I used these steps. I’m active with The Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity. You can’t find a more diverse neighborhood. You can have different Muslim spin offs next door to each other. But one thing they aren’t afraid to do is talk about their beliefs. One of the last houses I built with them, I talked with the owners and we talked about their Muslim faith but they were curious about Christianity and what it preached and they even asked if it would be acceptable for them to go to a church. I said of course! And invited them to come with me. After a few visits they started coming more and converted to Christianity stating that they found what they thought their religion was missing. This wasn’t done in any harsh manor. We talked while painting their house, adding landscape, caulking and it was peaceful. We found similarities and worked from there. My advice to anyone that we live in a society that misses community…the best way to do that is to share a meal—for those with less time—over a cup of coffee.
One thing that I did find different with this book was that it provides readers with concrete examples on activities to do with their diverse groups. The idea of focusing on the similarities of the religious stories and on the principals of each groups beliefs are the keys to success that many organizations lack. This book brought me back to a sermon preached by Andy Stanley when talking about the Christian Church and how Christians make church too hard. He used the example of trying to climb a ladder with the first few rungs of the ladder missing-hence making it impossible to reach those you aspired to learn from. As a society we often do the same thing. We think that we have to know all the stories—all the guts of a religion in order to understand how it works. That’s as far from the truth as possible. Rev. Heckman outlines several religious beliefs in the simplest terms and in turn gives you the first steps of seeing similarities. He essentially places the bottom rungs back on the ladder.
From cover to cover, Inter Active Faith provides common sense no nonsense steps on how to bring diverse communities together. While its focus is on religion, the same steps can be used to bring together different cultures and races and truly any group of people. Over all, the take home message is the best resource is you. You are essentially the only one who can make a difference by being willing to not only ask questions but to answer them as well and to not be offended even by the simplest questions. We live in a society ruled by media and if the media portrays the only the extremists of a cultural group, we tend to live in fear instead of freedom. If groups put to action and follow through with the steps outlined in Rev. Heckman’s book, they will find the success of living in harmony.
A note about me—I found that I used these steps. I’m active with The Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity. You can’t find a more diverse neighborhood. You can have different Muslim spin offs next door to each other. But one thing they aren’t afraid to do is talk about their beliefs. One of the last houses I built with them, I talked with the owners and we talked about their Muslim faith but they were curious about Christianity and what it preached and they even asked if it would be acceptable for them to go to a church. I said of course! And invited them to come with me. After a few visits they started coming more and converted to Christianity stating that they found what they thought their religion was missing. This wasn’t done in any harsh manor. We talked while painting their house, adding landscape, caulking and it was peaceful. We found similarities and worked from there. My advice to anyone that we live in a society that misses community…the best way to do that is to share a meal—for those with less time—over a cup of coffee.
October 19, 2017
I liked the background information provided around terminology, religions, etc. Good reference.
February 6, 2017
This book is a great resource for all who are trying to figure out what being interreligious looks, sounds, and feels like! If you're not sure where to even begin, let this wise people show you around.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews