Associations are being founded to promote understanding among Christians, Jews and Muslims to heal wounds inflicted by past intolerance. And Jewish and Christian scholars are working together to uncover the Jewish roots of the Gospel. In the light of all this, some Christians even look forward to a new reformation, in which religious men and women across the globe pool the special insights of their faiths. But Mr. Rhem's critics find this enthusiasm for other faiths deeply disturbing. To them, it seems a betrayal of a divine trust and a threat of religious identity.
Some people join fundamentalist sects to find certainly in a world where nothing seems sacred.
Others reassert the old exclusive doctrines - more stridently than ever. Like the new fundamentalism, however, the new liberalism is here to stay. IN the 21 st century, people of all faiths will have to decide whether to embrace the new globalization by expressing it in religious terms or to react vehemently against it and retreat into denominational ghettos.