Care as a Way of Interreligious Dialogue

Abstract

Abstract Intentional interreligious learning and dialogue usually take place at the academic level and deal with conceptual issues, but in pluralistic societies dialogue takes place naturally in interpersonal situations, such as therapy and other forms of helping or caregiving. In this essay, the author demonstrates the usefulness of care, an essential human expression and value, as a topic and means of interreligious dialogue. As a topic, studies on care in different cultural or religious contexts can uncover an underexplored aspect of those contexts. As a way or means of dialogue, care can help dialogue partners overcome conceptual issues and focus on the basic aim of dialogue itself: social and individual well-being. To demonstrate this, the author critically compares care and caring in Western and Chinese perspectives. A brief glimpse of a diverse but misunderstood Chinese caregiving tradition reveals new possibilities for the subject and practice.