Scott Steinkerchner – författare

Beyond Agreement addresses the thorny question of how to make interreligious dialogue productive when the religious differences are so large that finding common ground seems unlikely. The book offers a way to think about interreligious dialogue that allows people to stay committed to their own truth as they have come to know it while being open to learning from other religions. It then outlines a way for Christian theologians to enter into a profitable dialogue with the beliefs and traditions of other religions by presenting practical steps to follow in order to keep the dialogue productive and respectful of similarities and differences among religions.

What is real? What is the foundation of right and wrong? How can we know? There are many ways to answer these questions--Western religious views in which humanity is part of God''s creation, Eastern religious views in which delusion traps humanity in a cycle of reincarnation, and secular views in which humanity evolved as part of the material universe driven by nothing other than the impersonal forces of evolution.Each of these views paints unique and comprehensive pictures of the world to convey their vision. These pictures are as different from each other as if they were of three different lands separated from each other by patrolled borders. The border between Eastern and Western religions is guarded by arguments over the nature of the divine and rational versus experiential approaches to salvation. Both of these territories are separated from the land of scientific atheists who deny the existence of any supernatural reality and see the scientific method as the sole valid arbiter of truth.This book presents all three views for non-specialists, enabling readers to enter them imaginatively. It then compares these approaches on different contemporary topics. This book is for anyone who wonders why people believe what they do.