“Bridging Beliefs: The Power of Interfaith Collaboration,” an interview that included Professor of Religious Studies S.B. Rodríguez-Plate, appears in the September issue of Lion’s Roar magazine. Also interviewed were former Lion’s Roar editor Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Vedic monk Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, and Soto Zen priest Benn Connelly.
The interview, led by current Lion’s Roar editor Andrea Miller, focused on enriching one’s own spiritual practice by learning from other traditions, and the importance of interfaith collaboration today.
In response to what participants see as the “most significant challenges facing interfaith dialogue today,” Rodríguez-Plate said that it might be that “dialogue” is part of the problem. “We need to be about action, creative expressions, having dinners together, and creating activities where we’re focused on particular issues rather than talking about it all,” he said.
Rodríguez-Plate mentioned having taken part in multiple interreligious events in response to violence during the past several years and said, “just showing up for each other at these critical times – it can’t be overstated how important that is.”
According to its website, the mission of Lion’s Roar “is to communicate Buddhist wisdom and practices in order to benefit people’s lives and our society, and to support the development of Buddhism in the modern world.”
Posted August 14, 2025
