Theoretical reflection on interreligious questions can be deeply enriched by the praxis of dialogue. The article describes an undergraduate course in which the students and professor engaged self-critically in such dialogue both with texts and one another in the classroom and with local representatives of three religions in a public symposium. In the latter context, students' encounter of the religious “other” was sharpened by having students, rather than the outside experts, present the papers on the course themes—a feature that also stimulated broader interest among the college community. Such a course illustrates the value and the limitations of a dialogical pedagogy in which attention is simultaneously given to learning about both other religions and the students' points of view, in their distinctness and in their interaction.

At the height of modern questioning of the relevance of traditional symbols, Paul Ricoeur envisioned a reawakening to the plenitude of meaning available in symbols that would occur not through rejecting criticism but by moving through it. While many have found this vision of a “second naiveté” compelling, exemplars of it have remained few. This article proposes that insight into a contemporary reappropriation of symbols may be gained from an examination of Bede Griffiths' lifelong experience with one, Jesus Christ. Griffiths' contemplative and interreligious experience illustrate and advance the analyses of religious symbols offered by Ricoeur, Mircea Eliade, and David Tracy.