Dialogue and Difference: Spiritual Reflection

I'd like to add some spiritual reflections from Thomas Merton. In a chapter entitled, “The Root of War is Fear”, Merton writes:

...we never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethical and political problems: ... we are all more or less wrong, ... we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed by our mixed motives, our self-deception, our greed, our self-righteousness and our tendency to aggressivity and hypocrisy.

….I believe the basis for valid political action can only be the recognition that the true solution to our problems is not accessible to any one isolated party or nation but that all must arrive at it by working together.²⁹

I believe that we can have connective, critical and generous dialogue when we use connective discourse to recreate a locus of belonging and have a non-threatening ethos. I often think religious institutions can provide this, but that is clearly my bias.