Common Ground and Enemy Territory: How Should We Approach Adherents of Other Faiths?

Abstract

One heirloom already passed on to my oldest son is a small shell-cover purse. It was a prize possession of my paternal grandfather, David Hesselgrave. Grandfather was said to have been an avid student of the Scriptures and became an ordained minister in the Universalist Church. When the first Parliament of the World’s Religions was held in Chicago in 1893, grandfather was probably one of its most enthusiastic attendees. It was there that he purchased the purse bearing the Parliament inscription. It was there that he listened to the likes of the Jainist “chosen one,” Virchand Gandhi, and the prominent Hindu philosopher, Swami Vivekananda.