The Role of the Variable of Culture in Religious Dialogues of the Vatican

The interaction between religions in recent decades is based on coexistence and peace, and this can be the end of fruitless verbal arguments and conflicts between followers of religions. In the meantime, the followers of Abrahamic religions have adopted the same policy in the form of various religious dialogue institutions and are trying to be a help for religious diplomacy in the international arena, diplomacy that results in lasting peace and security among the followers of different religions. Of course, there are many different factors that create difficulties in the path of this policy and affect the achievement of this goal. Among these factors is the disregard for the civilizational and ethnic background of the interlocutors, which is examined as a part of the culture of each region and community. The appearance, time, place, social, cultural, and political conditions, as well as the thinking and the perception of the interlocutors about religion, and the interpretation they put forward based on their priorities, are different depending on their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. One of these institutions is the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, which always emphasizes the need for dialogue between different religions and cultures in its statements. In this research, we seek to examine the points in one of the council's statements about interreligious dialogue.