The Spirit of Dialogue : Lessons from Faith Traditions in Transforming Conflict

We tend to approach conflict from the perspective of competing interests. A farmers interest lies in preserving water for crops, while an environmentalists interest is in using that same water for instream habitats. Its hard to see how these interests intersect. But what if there was a different way to understand each partys needs? Aaron T. Wolf has spent his career mediating such conflicts, both in the U.S. and around the world. He quickly learned that in negotiations, people are not automatons, programed to defend their positions, but are driven by a complicated set of dynamicsfrom how comfortable (or uncomfortable) the meeting room is to their deepest senses of self. What approach or system of understanding could possibly untangle all these complexities?Wolfs answer may be surprising to Westerners who are accustomed to separating religion from science, rationality from spirituality. Wolf draws lessons from a diversity of faith traditions to transform conflict. True listening, as practiced by Buddhist

monks, as opposed to the active listening advocated by many mediators, can be the key to calming a colleagues anger.Alignment with an energy beyond oneself, what Christians would call grace, can change self-righteousness into community concern. Shifting the discussion from one about interests to one about common valuesboth farmers and environmentalists share the value of love of placecan be the starting point for real dialogue. As a scientist, Wolf engages religion not for the purpose of dogma but for the practical process of transformation. Whether atheist or fundamentalist, Muslim or Jewish, Quaker or Hindu, any reader involved in difficult dialogue will find concrete steps towards a meeting of souls. [Publisher's text]