All theology is rooted in biography.
More than ever personal experience plays a key role in how we view other people's values and behavior. Over the past twenty years, new opportunities for interreligious encounter, and, one hopes, dialogue among persons of widely different religious and spiritual traditions have considerably broadened the scope of these issues. The challenge of religious pluralism is not just an academic or theological matter. It has impact on religious and spiritual communities in every neighborhood, in every school district, in every health care institution, and in every family circle. This growth in religious pluralism pushes our theological discussions and our concept of mission itself in new and unforeseen directions.