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We are undoubtedly living in the age of dialogue. Dialogue, in the sense of conversations between persons or groups is, of course, nothing new, but dialogue in the sense of Martin Buber's "I-Thou" encounter is something relatively novel. Subsequent to the Second World War there has been much ecumenical dialogue between Jews and Christians and among Christians themselves. Since the 1970s, Jewish-Christian dialogue has been expanded in some places to include Muslims and has popularly come to be known as "trialogue". It is my good fortune that I was invited to be part of the first major trialogue of about 20 Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars which was initiated by the Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington DC in the late 1970s and continued until the mid-1980s.
Another trialogue, which began in the 1980s and continued for a number of years, was that of Jewish and Christian women, with myself as its sole Muslim member. This trialogue was sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and Church Women United in New York. Another long-lasting trialogue of which I became a part was sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. This trialogue, which consisted of about 30 scholars, continued until 1994. In addition to these long-term trialogues I have had the privilege of participating in many interreligious conferences bringing together adherents of the three Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
What I state in this paper thus comes from more than two decades of intensive and extensive involvement in a variety of trialogues in many countries. It is very difficult for me to express in words what I have learned and gained from these experiences. Suffice it to say that they have not only enriched but transformed my life, and that through them I found a community of faith which has been a source of great strength and support to me in more ways than I can enumerate. As I share my reflections on the problems and possibilities of trialogue among the Abrahamic faiths, I want to express my deep gratitude to all those partners in dialogue - Jews, Christians and Muslims - who helped me to know and to grow. It is because of them that interreligious dialogue became for me not...