The coexistence between religions has always been complicated and creating conflicts. However dialog between these religions has often led to real achievements in many fields, like philosophy or theology. If great conflicts were born, for instance the Religious wars in the XVIth and XVIIth century in Europe, it looks that these conflicts are coming back. The failure of Marxism created a come back to more “classical” confrontations, and the religious one is one of them. It is the reason why, to the same extend, “classical” responses like dialog, cooperation and firmness on abuses linked to religions have to be promoted. An example of this confrontation is between great “sedentary” religions (Catholicism, Islam and Hinduism) and great “nomadic” religions (Protestantism, Judaism, Buddhism). In my opinion “sedentary” is linked to the fact these religions are traditionally more widespread in territories and less “individualistic”: they often rely on a hierarchy or an authority. It doesn’t mean they are not great religions, as they all have a great intellectual legacy, with many great thinkers. On the contrary, “nomadic” religions are more individualistic, and are more centered around individual studying. In Judaism studying is a main divine obligation ; in Protestantism the Pastor is a teacher and a theologian, not a “guide” for the believers like the priest, and he is not “above” them.
The confrontation between these religions are a great factor of tragedies in History. If you have a look at the Inquisition, the Pogroms made all over History against the Jews (I don’t talk about the Shoah), or the Reconquista which as really violent, religions have often spread passion, and often violent targets. Moreover, for instance, Christianity as Islam want to spread and there is a culture of proselytism is all of them. There have been also a lot of misunderstanding between religions. For instance, the Jews are traditionally retired from the world because they are, in their tradition, been “chosen” to prepare the advent of the Messiah at the end of the times ; God is also retreating from the world. But the behavior associated has also created a lot of misunderstanding and led to violent reactions, Pogroms, marginalization and so on. For my part, as a Protestant Christian and great respect for all the religions I talked about, I find Jewish religion fascinating because they rely more than the others on studying, knowledge and culture. The great confrontations between Talmudist like Hillel and Shammaï will give a great legacy in the intellectual history of mankind. Luther is also in my opinion a great person as, beyond being a great intellectual, a greatly engaged person : he had bad sides (he was antisemitic) but he was also a great feminist (he was the first in history to educate massively women) and progressist (the fact he decided to marry while being a monk was revolutionary at his time). Otherwise, with the support of his close friend and brilliant intellectual Melanchton, he came back to a return to Antique sources, and deepened Anciant Greek and Biblical Hebrew, the languages of the Bible, besides being great readers. They impact were very stimulating in the Western world, and the Catholics created the Jesuit movement with Ignace of Loyola to confront intellectually the Reformers. This rivalry led to the apparition of great thinkers like Descartes, Malebranche, Pascal, Locke or Hume.
But rivalry is not the only way to stimulate these religions. It is the reason why considering dialog can be enriching as well. For instance, in the Middle Ages, Maïmonide wrote the book of knowledge which was creating bridges between philosophy and theology. In Islam Averroes wrote to reconsider the role of philosophy in Islam and to make it enrich the interpretation of the texts ; however Al Afghani confronted Averroes and promoted a stricter interpretation of the Kuran, excluding philosophy. But the coexistence between the Muslims and the Jews in the Middle Ages created a lot of great intellectual legacy, compared to the Western world which was a this time barbaric with the law of landlords.
Attali wrote that civilizations decline when they exclude different and singular people. It is what is happening today, where our society is more intolerant and communautarist, and the rejection of “different” people is more and more seen in many stages of society. The economic impact is huge with an overwhelming debt, an economic decline (it is only one of the reasons anyway, but I think it participates to the process), the decline of education, and “classical” values threatened for a reactionary oppression. The decadent time we live in can be tackled by engaging for religious dialog, the promotion of tolerance and also promoting libraries, which can counterbalance the impact of social networks and media. The mediocrity of many social networks is an economic threat and has a negative social impact, to the extend a more educated population is more likely to be free and to enrich itself. Mandela said that “education is the most powerful weapon to change the world” and this sentence is often forgotten today. This mentality can be inspiring for religious dialog to promote more tolerance and learn from the others instead of staying of biased views.
The observer 