Multifaith Musing: Essays and Exchanges

In this collection of essays, Dorothy Yoder Nyce my friend, student, and fellow searcher illustrates and embodies a truth that has been dawning on, and calling for reform of, the mainline Christian churches (even many evangelical churches) for the last half century: as the Asian Catholic Bishops have put it: Dialogue is the new way of being church. Pentecost, which might be called the big bang that launched the ecclesia, will continue rippling through the ecclesial universe of the second millennium mainly through the energy of dialogue. In order for the community of Jesus-followers to be faithful disciples in our present world they need to understand Christian to mean dialogical. To
continue being the church of Jesus Christ, we will have to be the dialogical church of Jesus Christ.
Because of her own life experiences, because of the demands of her own Mennonite Christian faith, because of the friends she has made in other religions, Dorothy Yoder Nyce has felt and responded to this call to live the Gospel in a lived engagement with persons of other faiths. As I read through the essays in this collection both the more scholarly reflections as well as the living dialogical conversations that she records and imagines I heard her give expression to two primary reasons why interreligious dialogue has become for her, as for a growing number of Christians, a moral imperative. The world which the church is called to serve, challenge, and transform is a world in dire need of dialogue for two daunting reasons: it is a pluralistic world, and it is a violent world.

Paul F. Knitter
Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions, and Culture
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY

Ever since living in India from 1962-65, plus on seven further assignments there, Dorothy Yoder Nyce has been drawn to study and absorb the richness of multifaiths alongside Christian loyalty. This book reflects her effort to respect, understand and ever-learn from key religions. As the number of people loyal to diverse religions grows in the United States, her hope deepens for adherents to be welcomed. This book also reflects Dorothy s thanks to those who have mentored her religious being her Mother s habit of ever-humming hymns of faith, international friends, key professors of world religions, and numerous writers of interfaith Wisdom.
An advocate for diverse justice issues, Yoder Nyce values disciplined research and the rigor of writing. A teacher at heart, she values sharing what she learns. Retired from secondary, college and seminary teaching (part-time), Dorothy s fondness for religions deepened through increased exposure and changes that enhanced personal faith. She invites Christians to promote God s inclusive kin-dom through openness to sacred difference, ecumenical or interfaith.

In addition to dozens of articles, Dorothy Yoder Nyce earlier wrote or edited books: about women (Rooted and Branching Women Worldwide, To See Each Other s Good, and Which Way Women?); or about theology (Jesus Clear Call to Justice, Mission Today Challenges and Concerns with Abraham Athyal and Weaving Wisdom: Sermons by Mennonite Women) plus booklets or collections of articles about death and grief, sexual or spiritual diversity, and family history.
Academic degrees that Yoder Nyce has earned are: BA - Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana; MDiv - Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Elkhart, Indiana; DMin - Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan.