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The Renewal and Reform of the Catholic Church's Relationship with the Religious Others: Prospects and Challenges for a Theological Humanistic Turn in Christian‐Muslim Dialogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

MariaOlisaemeka Rosemary Okwara
MariaOlisaemeka Rosemary Okwara*
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

This article aims at exploring some recent developments in Catholic Church's recent relationship with religious others. It does so by exploring the theological‐anthropological sources behind Vatican II and some subsequent Papal teachings concerning the Church's mission of dialogue. Specifically, it discusses the notion of common origin, destiny and common humanity as sources for praxis‐oriented and faith‐based initiatives in a Christian‐Muslim dialogue. This article is divided into three sub‐sections. First, it considers the Catholic Church's renewed dialogue with non‐Christian believers, with particular focus on the theological‐anthropological turn in recent Church teaching. Second, it examines the prospects and challenges of Christian‐Muslim dialogue based on belief in God the creator and divine revelation, and human beings' response to divine manifestations in history. Finally, it considers some faith‐based humanistic and dialogic initiatives that emerge from the Christian‐Muslim confession of one creator God. The paper suggests that a theology of dialogue that understands the world and human beings as the realm of encounter, uncovering and necessitating the divine and the Church's (salvific) activity in human history, can foster faith‐based humanistic and dialogic initiatives between Christians and Muslims.

Keywords

Vatican IItheological‐anthropologyChristian‐Muslim dialoguecreationcommon origin and destinycommon humanity
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 99 , Issue 1080 , March 2018 , pp. 206 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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