The Center for Interfaith Studies & Dialogue

The Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue (CISD) promotes research and encourages strategies for living peacefully in a religiously diverse world. This vision is realized through dialogue, education, and community-building efforts.

Every religion demands that we alleviate suffering. Every religion dreams of a better world. Yet each religion offers different means to attain these goals. CISD believes that individuals can learn from each other, understand each other and work together in a respectful way for the common good.

The CISD includes individuals who are diverse in religion, faith, ethnicity, race, gender and education. The common denominator is a desire to develop skills to clarify and improve individual and community-wide communications on matters of religion, faith and spirituality; to understand individual and communal faiths; to establish methodology proper to our goals; and to develop the capacity for living in a pluralistic world.

We seek to understand and develop research tools, knowledge and skills to benefit our common humanity.

Our goals are:

• To establish an environment conducive to understanding the diversity of faiths in our world and community.
• To communicate the skills necessary for people of diverse faiths to live together in peace and justice.
• To provide educational resources to aid in establishing an environment of understanding and equality.
• To teach individuals, communities and institutions how to live and communicate more effectively with those from other religions and faith backgrounds.