Interfaith Dialogue in the Post-Truth Age: Challenges, Strategies, and Prospects

This paper investigates the challenges, strategies and prospects of interfaith dialogue in the post-truth age. Conflicting truth claims constitute one of the major obstacles in establishing dialogue and rapprochement among believers. Some members of faith communities have an exclusivist view of the truth, which prevents them from embracing other truths. This would hinder the progress of interfaith ecumenism. Using qualitative content analysis, the results of the current study show that the rise of post-truth poses additional challenges to the progress of interfaith dialogue since it evaluates the truthfulness of information based on personal believability and inclinations. In the age of post-truth, societal fragmentation is amplified as there are polarized conceptions of truth. Some strategies can be undertaken in response to these challenges, such as nurturing empathy, compassion, and religious moderatism through formal and informal education. In addition, critical argumentation and civil dialogue within academia should be adopted for a larger society. This paper argues that the prospects for interfaith dialogue in the post-truth age depend on the strength of civil society actors who can moderate the tension and polarization within the society by maintaining civility either offline or online.