Panel: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION AND GLOBAL POLITICS



715.2 - PARALLEL PATHS TO GOD: STATE-SPONSORED INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE IN EISENHOWER'S AMERICA

AUTHORS:
Fine P. (Oxford University ~ Oxford ~ United Kingdom)
Text:
This paper examines the United States Government's efforts to promote interreligious dialogue during the 1950s. As the decade progressed, the Eisenhower Administration began to recognize that the traditional language of America's "Judeo-Christian" heritage—formerly viewed as progressive and inclusive—was overly restrictive. This was, in part, a response to global Cold War tensions and, in part, a result of increased domestic religious pluralism. Consequently, the government supported efforts to emphasize a common spiritual denominator to which adherents of all religious faiths could subscribe. I examine two interreligious conferences from the period—a 1955 meeting of the Foundation for Religious Action in the Social and Civil Order in Washington, D.C. and a 1958 meeting on world religions in Dallas, TX. Both emphasized that the transcendent dignity of the human being was the foundation of freedom and democracy, both gave voice to international religious figures from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths, and both received support and promotion from the U.S. Government. This movement shared many of its core features with contemporary European religious humanism. Yet I demonstrate that this was a uniquely American contribution to the rise of interreligious dialogue in the middle of the twentieth century, which has been largely overlooked by historians. An examination of these two conferences, I contend, sheds light on the historical context for understanding the Eisenhower Administration's assertion that Americans had "deep respect" for all who walked "parallel paths to God"—no matter their religious affiliation.