Journal of Ecumenical Studies

Readers of this journal may assume that their field, like the discipline of mathematics or the study of literature, has a long history. It is worth remembering how very new the study of religion really is—and newer still the project of interfaith dialogue. The fact is that we can trace the origins of these projects back fewer than 150 years. It is worth reminding ourselves that we stand on the shoulders of giants: men and women who, like the great explorers, set out into uncharted waters, often against active resistance, and certainly in defiance of conventional wisdom. Not a deep academic exploration or analysis of the earliest days of “interfaith” work, Braybrooke’s brief study is more like sitting by the fireside sharing the reminiscences of a genial veteran of the work. For everyone engaged in the endeavor, it provides a useful and digestible reminder of their lineage.

Braybrooke shares some of his own experiences as a deeply engaged participant in numerous dialogical undertakings and gives brief overviews of the beginnings of the work he shares with us. He discusses some of the first inter-faith conferences, notably the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in conjunction with the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Rather than providing a full history of that event, he focuses on some of the individuals who participated in it. He reminds us that the Parliament was the first real moment when representatives of various of the world religions came together. The very act of meeting, perhaps more than anything that was said, and certainly more than any concrete actions that were taken, was pathbreaking and historical. It is important to be reminded of the seismic quality of this singular event. This was the moment when America and Americans were introduced to spokes-people for the religious traditions of the East. The United States was, at least in [End Page 139] its own self-understanding, a Christian nation—even though adherents of other traditions had lived here from the nation’s beginning. The Parliament elevated the presence of those groups, and others as well, in the collective American consciousness. The image of the collected representatives of so many non-Christian communities, on a more or less equal footing, with Christian religious groups was paradigm-changing. As one newspaper account put it just a week after the conclusion of that gathering, “Christianity had learned that there are no longer pagans and heathen.” Christians, Buddhists, Confucians, Hindus, and others all stood together “upon the same plane of morality and humanity.”

Braybrooke takes note of the pivotal, even transformational, role of Swami Vivekananda in the legacy of the Parliament. Probably the first representative of an Eastern tradition to make a significant impression on American consciousness, he traveled the country following this gathering, increasing the general public’s curiosity about the religious traditions of “others.” He was also single-handedly responsible for creating a sustained Hindu presence in the U.S. when he established the Vedanta Society the following year in New York. Braybrooke introduces us to the impressive diversity of other spokespeople for numerous Eastern traditions, all of whom opened the eyes and piqued the curiosity of the American public at large about religious communities and traditions beyond their own horizons. It is noteworthy that there was virtually no participation from the Muslim world in the Parliament nor in later interfaith activities. Because of this, Islam remained the most unfamiliar non-Christian tradition in America until the events of very recent times made familiarity with that tradition inescapable and necessary.

Braybrooke devotes extensive discussion to the role of women in the Parliament and in the subsequent programs and organizations that followed in its wake. He reminds us that women had a prominent place in this project years before they had the right to vote in American elections.

The book, intentionally or not, raises numerous issues about the beginnings of interfaith dialogue and the study of religions. It is interesting to note the extent to which these endeavors were tethered...