Embracing Our Time: The Sacrament of Interfaith Friendship

Catholicism entails a challenge. The word catholic means "universal." Yet, that universality is expressed through different rites, languages, jurisdictions, and states of life that are unique and concrete. Today Catholicism's universality faces a still further challenge. It must share the world not only with Protestants of various kinds, but also with adherents of other faiths (and none). In the decades since Vatican II and the promulgation of Nostra Aetate, the question of religious difference has itself become more concrete. Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus live among and alongside Protestants and Catholics in neighborhoods across the globe. How does this practical reality square with Catholicism's understanding of itself and its neighbors?

In Embracing Our Time, university chaplain Lynn Cooper provides practical resources for interfaith engagement rooted in a Catholic perspective. Drawing on Trinitarian, sacramental, and feminist theologies, Cooper shows that interreligious collaboration is a concrete expression of the interdependence at the heart of Catholic faith. Embracing Our Time centers the lived experiences of Catholics and employs theological reflection, composite storytelling, and spiritual provocations to guide readers on an inner journey, inviting them to a deep reading of their lives and communities. Cooper empowers lay folks to be conscientious interfaith leaders within their communities and congregations, not because they are experts in their tradition, but because the Christian call to friendship across and within difference is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus.