THE COMING CONVERGENCE OF WORLD RELIGIONS

"We have...moved across the threshold into a new situation in religion. No longer is the quest for unity primarily the con-cern of historians, social theorists and those who generally felt themselves to be outside the commitment to one of the traditions. The quest for unity at long last involves those with a specific religious identity and hence enters the very sub-stance of religious experience, both individual and com-munally shared. Even though a concern still limited to a very few, the explosion in communications and the revolution in education are even now multiplying the effect of these few astronomically.

The question before us, then, is not whether the world's religious traditions have a positive significance for one an-other, but rather, how we can formulate an understanding of that significance. The formulation we seek must arise from within actual religious experience and be capable of speak-ing to one who listens from within a tradition of sharing spe-ci