I have to be honest, the terms “interfaith” and “dialogue” used to make me cringe. The reason I used cringe is because I assumed that the prerequisite to participation in most dialogue events was that you had to check your deepest convictions at the door. It seemed that people like me, who believe in the exclusive claims of Christ, would either be excluded from such events or asked to minimize what they believe.

“Do all Christians around the world really believe that Love of God and Neighbor is that important? I thought for sure Ahmad’s question was merely theological. He wanted to make nice, to talk about important sounding topics that never impact real lives. But Ahmad later came up to me and wanted to talk more.

Because of my position at Yale University, I have unique opportunities to meet regularlywith some of the very top Muslim religious leaders from around the world. For some I am the only evangelical Christian they have ever met, so they naturally ask me about issues in Evangelical-Muslim relations.

I argue the case for a common purpose between Muslims and Christians explicitly in my book, “Earth, Empire and Sacred Text: Muslims and Christians as Trustees of Creation” – an expanded creation argument on the basis of both Bible and Qur’an. But it is also the point of Miroslav Volf’s new book, “Allah: A Christian Response.”

Something magnificent just happened … in fact you could call it a miracle. God led the World Council of Churches, the Catholic Church, and Evangelicals to work together. Not only did they reflect amazing unity in working together, but they actually agreed upon the church’s responsibility to bear witness in a multi-religious world. Two miracles in one document!

I just attended the Building Hope Conference at Yale (June 13-22, 2011), a strategic international conference of Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders, committed to seeking the common good.So what are some of the major lessons I learned?

Approximately ten leaders from each faith community were chosen to attend this international gathering focused on seeking the common good. Participants have been carefully chosen by senior leaders in each faith community as representing those mid-career leaders most likely to be exercising the widest influence in their communities in the coming 10-15 years. Here is a final statement and report from the conference.

Media reports keep emphasizing the brutality of the Syrian repression, despite the regime’s repeated promises of reforms. What is more, the Alawi ruling elite has carried out attacks against both the Sunni majority and the small Christian population. Recently in an address to the Religious Summit of the G8 , the Syrian Orthodox Bishop of Aleppo, Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, appealed to the worldwide church and the wider religious community to support a peaceful resolution to the Syrian conflict.

One of the most damaging ways the sacred-secular dichotomy demonstrates itself is in the clergy-laity split. For example, the phrase “full time Christian service” often implies a superior quality inherent in clerical or missionary work. Let’s see what the Apostle Peter says about this.