Encountering God

by Diana L. Eck

In the summer of 1965, as young Americans everywhere struggled to come to terms with the war in Vietnam and the crises of the civil rights movement, Diana Eck was a college student learning Hindi in preparation for her first visit to India. It was a trip that would change her life, bringing her into relationships with non-Christians such as the former freedom fighter Achyut Patwardhan and the philosopher Krishnamurti, whose insights challenged her to examine her own Christian faith from a radically new perspective. Now in the 1990s the challenge of responding to the problem of religious difference is virtually universal. Is only one religion true? Is there a way ahead in a world of interreligious strife? Today most Americans have encountered religions not their own: a neighbor practices Buddhist meditation, one's child has a Muslim classmate, or a friend extends an invitation to a Christmas Eve service or a Passover seder. In Encountering God, Eck reflects on the questions posed by her