Maryam Mouzzouri is a Belgian student from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes of Paris who, as part of KAICIID’s “Talking Dialogue” project, has been conducting archival work in Chicago, USA. Her research for the Talking Dialogue project was centred on the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions, widely recognised today as the birth of worldwide formal interreligious dialogue. Held in Chicago in parallel with the World Columbian Exposition, an early precursor of the Universal Exposition, the Parliament was attended by representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, the first ever encounter of this kind.

 Although finding letters and correspondences between protagonists involved in the World’s Parliament of Religions was complicated –a fire in Berkley in 1923 had apparently destroyed many precious documents – I have hopefully found some interesting pieces of information. The  conversations in these papers promised great successes in the future of interreligious dialogue. However, the first World Parliament on interreligious dialogue is unfortunately not well known in the general public; at the end of this article I will therefore give an example of how crucial this event was for people through the story of  one of its main participants, Dr. Philip Schaff.

But first, let me explain how I went about trying to find my archival materials.

When I arrived in Chicago, I went to DePaul University to work on their archives. Before I came to Chicago they had said that they didn’t have a lot of documents from first hand sources from the World’s Parliament of Religions of 1893; however, they did have several books from 1893-1894 and some papers – some of them really short - which had been written by the Parliament of World Religions’ Council or by some of the Parliament’s participants. The personnel of DePaul University’s Special Collections and Archives Department had prepared four boxes of documents on the World’s Parliament of Religions, including all they had on the Parliament of 1893. In these four boxes, there were only eight documents which were originals from 1893 or 1894; four other interesting documents were undated. One of the final documents didn’t have an author: it was part of a document which had been copied out without any references, making its origin extremely difficult to discover.

The other documents in these 4 boxes were written more recently. Some of them were even documents written by participants if the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions from 1993 or later. They were analyses of the 1893 Parliament: also interesting, but not firsthand material. I have therefore left these documents ‘til last and am waiting for next week to analyze them.

After a week of research at DePaul University, I had finished reading all their documents from 1893-1894, so I decided to search for other firsthand documents in other libraries in Chicago before reading the letters and books from 1993. I found some interesting documents in the University of Chicago’s Library: a total of eight books from 1893 Parliament, mostly written by some of its participants. One is a summary of some journal articles which were written on the event on a daily basis as it took place; among the documents, I also found a microfilm from 1893.

Although the University of Chicago Library only allowed foreign students to spend 5 days carrying out research, I managed to look through, and make copies of, all the documents they had on the 1893 Parliament.

Jana and I also met, on Wednesday the 16th of July, Mary Nelson and her team from the Council for the Parliament of World’s Religions, who gave us a nice and warm welcome. They advised us to meet some people who might have documents on the Parliament, dating from both 1893 and 1993.

Finally, the example of Dr. Philip Schaff seems to me to be the best illustration of the World’s Parliament of Religions’ importance in promoting interfaith dialogue. Dr. Schaff, by 1893 an octogenarian, was a Protestant Church historian who had promoted Christian unity during his entire life. By coming from New York to Chicago against the wishes of his doctor, Dr. Schaff, who was strongly weakened because of illness, put his life at risk, but he saw in the World’s Parliament of Religions an opportunity to share his deep convictions, as on religious harmony and cooperation. So despite his physician’s prohibition, he went to this event. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, in one of his books ^[1], honors him by closing his volume with “[his] fitting words ^[2]”“compiled in the interests of religious unity, [and] uttered in physical weakness, by this loved teacher ^[3]”:

“This is short notice to speak to be given to one who has just risen from the dead. A little more than a year ago I was struck down by apoplexy; but I have recovered, through the mercy of God, and I am a miracle to myself. I was warned by physicians and friends not to come to Chicago. They said it would kill me. Well, let it kill me. I was determined to bear my last dying testimony to the cause of Christian Union, in which I have been interested all my life. But I think the Lord will give me strength to survive this Parliament of Religions. The idea of this Parliament will survive all criticism. The critics will die, but the cause will remain. And as sure as God is the Truth, and as sure as Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Life, his Word shall be fulfilled and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. ^[4]”

^[1] JONES Jenkin Lloyd, A Chorus of Faith as heard in the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, sept.10-27, 1893, Chicago, Chicago: The Unity Publishing Company, 1893, 333p.

^[2] Ibid. p.327.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.