Interreligious Dialogue Skills Training for Peaceful Coexistence: A Buddhist Contribution

Abstract

Interreligious dialogue (ID) has been recognized as an important tool for peacebuilding in multi-religious communities. However, its practice has faced many problems and challenges due to various factors. The lack of dialogue skills is one of them. The paper proposes that ID competency training should be part of general education at school and university level to prepare young people’s capacity for building a peaceful multireligious society. In Canada, this type of education was actualized in 2008 through the Quebec education program “Ethics and Religious Culture” to develop dialogue skills for school students. Such a subject has not been found in general educational systems in Asia. This study applies the Quebec framework to study the Buddha’s dialogue skills in the Buddhist scripture – the Sutta Pitaka through a qualitative content analysis method. There are various skill sets to be developed according to the Quebec model. However, this paper will focus on the skill of how to examine a point of view including 4 types view: judgment of preference, judgment of prescription, judgment of reality and judgment of value. The study found that while the Quebec framework gives some guidelines on how to examine each type of view, it does not provide concrete standards for judging it. In contrast, the Buddhist framework provides concrete standards and frameworks for examining and evaluating different religious views. The study argues that Buddhist resources can enrich the Quebec framework and function as one of valuable resources for ID competency education.