The Third Desert The Story of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue

Here we have the first ever slow-motion replay of the humble ongoing movement of Christian monks, who-through their relentless struggle (never given up despite many setbacks) to establish and perpetuate an incessant conversation with their non-Christian counterparts in an atmosphere that alternates speech with silence-had proved to the post-Vatican II church that the new world that it dreamt of as our common future can begin to become a reality only when religious persons who have given up the world in order to take up its cause accept themselves as partners in a common mission rather than rivals in a conversion race. This is a facet of contemporary church history little known and scarcely mentioned.

With a firm conviction that today being religious must be being interreligious, Fabrice Blée offers us a rich account of how monastic interreligious dialogue has made an indispensable contribution not only to Christian renewal but also to world peace through the sharing of religious experiences. The 'third desert,' of which Blée speaks so eloquently and masterfully, is the space of silence in which one listens to the other to discern both similarities and differences. It is the 'désert de l'altérité'-to quote the original title of the book-that is becoming the dwelling-place of Christianity in its third millennium. The English translation has faithfully rendered the clarity and elegance of the French original.