No doubt? No dialogue!

Learnings for the Future of Inter-Faith Dialogue (Part #12)

At an event such as the Parliament, it is useful to be sensitive to four modes, which everyone can get into, although some may be primarily characterized by only one of them:

(a) Participating to teach: characteristic of presenters, spiritual leaders, and many others who actively wish to convey information from their experience, and to be seen to do so.
(b) Participating to learn: characteristic of many who wish to hear from presenters and spiritual leaders in order to benefit from their experience.
(c) Participating to exchange information: characteristic of the networking mode.
(d) Participating to share doubts: characteristic of those who have discovered the limitations of both the teaching and the learning roles, and the communications they encourage.

'Doubt sharing' is exemplified by a parable offered by a member of the Parliament Board of Trustees: A man is lost deep in the woods. In his futile search for a way out, he comes upon another man and seeks his assistance. The other man replies: 'Do not take the way I have for it will surely lead you astray. Now, let us seek to find the right way together.'

Unfortunately the Parliament proved to be an exercise in presenting certainties (Mode a) and learning of them (Mode b). Information exchange (Mode c) was suppressed. And no process was developed to work collectively with uncertainty to uncover new routes forward (Mode d). It is from the combination of this Mode (d) with dialogue Type (e), at 'higher' levels of dialogue, that the real opportunities for the future will emerge.