Promoting spiritual intelligence in community interfaith dialogue in the Abrahamic religions

Abstract

Religion is a significant contributing factor to community level violence and acts of intolerance, which seem to be increasing among the Abrahamic faiths. Interfaith initiatives seek to enhance religious tolerance and promote peaceful coexistence, while spiritual intelligence (SI) programs seek to increase the capacity to align with the sacred and apply spiritual resources to solve specific problems. This project proposed to assess whether improving SI among members of the three faiths can promote effective community interfaith dialogue. A mixed method explanatory sequential design, employing both quantitative and qualitative data collection was used. The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of SI training, followed by a survey of the participants' opinion of the value of the training on their ability to engage in interfaith dialogue. The goal was to demonstrate that the spiritual strengths of the three faiths can be enhanced to promote SI, which will then foster positive dialogue.