In the present age, human beings are in the process of moving out of a millennia-long "Age of Monologue," when humans talked primarily with others who were much like them into an new era, the "Age of Dialogue," wherein humans are increasingly learning to dialogue with those who are religiously/ideologically, and therefore, culturally, different from them. In order to do so successfully, they are beginning first to listen to "the other" in order to learn from them, and then respond.

If we are to maximize the incredibly creative power released by the cross-pollinating interaction of theses massive world-wide developments and at the same time minimize the potentially destructive forces we must quickly and consciously turn our attention and energies to developing and promoting on all levels authentic dialogue.

The Institute for Interreligious, Intercultural Dialogue (IIID) translated the fundamental research published in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies into concrete activities and partnerships. It sponsored numerous conferences on interreligious, interideological, intercultural dialogue, including a number of seminars on Jewish-Christian dialogue in Germany (East and West) and the United States, Christian-Marxist Dialogue in Europe, the United States, the Soviet Union and China, and an International Buddhist-Christian Dialogue Conference in Japan. IIID also collaborated with the Kennedy Institute of Georgetown University, and then the National Conference of Christians and Jews in sponsoring the "International Scholars' Annual Trialogue" (ISAT) especially directed toward Jews, Christians, and Muslim.

Such face-to-face encounters in the United States, Europe and the Near East have brought together renowned scholars representing various world religions, ideologies and cultures, and have pushed dialogue forward into new spheres, such as the Deep-Dialogue^TM of the Global Dialogue Institute. These conferences resulted in the publication of several major books, including: 1) From Holocaust to Dialogue: A Jewish-Christian Dialogue Between Americans and Germans; 2) Abraham, Father of Three Religions; 3) Human Rights: Christians, Marxists and Others in Dialogue; 4) How Jews, Christians, Muslims Can Together Move from Theory to Practice; and 5) Toward a Theology of World Religions.