A Narrative of Love conversation hosted by Dr Scherto Gill
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Prof Azza Karam opens with a provocative observation: religions are known for their patriarchy, yet here she is — a woman leading Religions for Peace International. What this points to, she suggests, is that the original language of love comes from religion; the articulations of love for and of the divine are humanity’s oldest vocabulary for what matters most.
The conversation explores how Religions for Peace creates the spaces, conditions and opportunities for genuine interfaith dialogue — not as a nice aspiration but as a practical necessity. The ethos of RfP, she explains, is quintessentially that of love: building on a heritage of dialogue in shared spaces of care and knowledge, provided together by communities who would otherwise remain separate.
She distinguishes between dialogue and diapraxis — working together across difference, which builds a specific kind of trust: the recognition that though we begin from radically polarised positions, nothing can ultimately come between us when we are committed to serving together. She points to the Covid pandemic as a living example of love in action: the first question that arose in communities of faith was simply “what can I do, to contribute to the healing?”
The conversation closes on a phrase that distils the RfP vision: leaders should love to serve, and serve to love.
This is one of eleven conversations in the A Narrative of Love series, hosted by Dr Scherto Gill in preparation for the 5th Spirit of Humanity Forum, June 2021. The series was sponsored by the Pureland Foundation and the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace (GHFP).