‘Talking Dialogue’ project was one of the first projects undertaken by KAICIID after the Global Forum in 2013. The project is an investigation into the history of interreligious dialogue, through the histories of organisations active in the field. In many cases, it draws upon hitherto unpublished archive material and documents. The students’ research examines how interreligious dialogue, and its practice, have changed over the past century.

The Talking Dialogue project brings together twelve senior students from major universities around the world in order to analyse key episodes in the history of what is frequently called the Interreligious Dialogue Movement / IRDM.

“The project wants to reach two entwined aims. First, it wants to provide a totally new perspective on the IRD Movement. We concentrate on what happened during very concrete episodes in the history of this movement. Second, we want to provide young scholars of religion to discuss this history in an international context. We brought together students from the Europe, the USA, Japan, South-Korea, and Russia,” says Karsten Lehmann from KAICIID’s Social Sciences and Statistics Section, who is in charge of the project.The workshop in Cordoba / Spain was undertaken in cooperation with Casa Arabe. On Casa Arabe’s beautiful premises, the students worked for two full days. They presented the results of their research, highlighting the diverse backgrounds of the early IRD organizations such as Parliament of the World’s Religions and the Religiöse Menschheitsbund. At the same time, they referred to the challenges some of the more recent organizations (such as World Religions for Peace or International Association for Religious Freedom) were facing with regard to increasing globalization over the past century. The students presented fascinating insights into the challenges the protagonists of this movement faced while connecting people from different religious backgrounds. They discussed the successes of international conferences as well as the pitfalls that were sometimes encountered.

Over the next few months, the students will work on the manuscripts presented in Cordoba. Some of the results will be presented on posters in the course of the Dialogue beyond Dialogue conference. KAICIID, will also make the results of this project accessible to a wider public via a more detailed publication.