Tolerance and interreligious dialogue

Interreligious dialogue has a prominent position among the issues of modernity at Alma Mater Europaea. Efforts to move from confrontation to tolerance are always topical among the people with different perspectives on the world. Of course, each fight can only be won, but the opponent can only rarely be convinced. Coping with diversity is understood as an ancient human state, but such conceptualisation of relations between living beings is too narrow: opposition and competition are as common as co-existence and co-operation.

Therefore, an analysis of the factors that make interreligious dialogue more difficult and tendencies that encourage it, is welcome - from a synchronic as well as a diachronic perspective. This Proceedings is a part of the results of an interdisciplinary conference entitled "All About People", which took place in Maribor in March 2017. Problems that have been themed in various disciplines were revealed as transnational, they could not have set boundaries in space, nor in time. The present Proceedings is two-part. Firstly, thoughts about the current situation are presented, followed by contributions with historical themes. It is not only important for a person to know about where he is, what is important is also the reflection on the origin of his experience, which marks the way of perceiving reality. This does not only affect the present, but also the future.

Alma Mater Europaea has already prompted reflections on interreligious dialogue and tolerance in the past. We plan to keep the initiative going in the same direction in times that can only be surmised today. This Proceedings strives to stay a solid element on the bridge between the past and the future.

Prof. Ludvik Toplak