A collection of texts and essays focused on how the work of Christianity is affected by other religious traditions.

How can Christians relate to people of other religious traditions, or even non-believers whose lives truly embody the unconditional divine love given to all at creation? This question is urgent in the world of the twenty-first century, a world beset with many serious problems and marked by a wide variety of religious traditions that present differing claims.

This book explores how we as Christians relate to and engage religious "Others" in constructive ways as we carry out our tasks of mission and ministry to the world. The first part of this book includes texts, beginning with the New Testament and working through the early church Fathers to theologians of today, that indicate ways forward. The essays in the second part of The Gospel among the Nations explore ways of living together in ministry that broaden and deepen our understanding of other traditions and help us to become more firmly rooted in our own lives as Christians living in a world of many traditions.

The study of altruism and altruistic behavior has caught the attention of social scientists especially in recent years. What motivates individuals to cultivate attitudes and actions that promote the wellbeing of others at the expense of, or at the risk of negative consequences for their own? In our contemporary global society marked by conflict and violence among different sectors of the population in various regions of the world, and wherein religion can be a factor that exacerbates such conflict and violence, harnessing the power of religion towards directions of reconciliation, creativity, and altruistic action, remains a crucial task for humankind. This volume addresses a question especially relevant in our day: do people who profess religious commitment or affiliation in a particular religious community tend to nurture altruistic kinds of attitude and action more than others? Social scientists present results of their empirical studies on Japanese society, as well as on North American, European, Indian, and Thai societies, to focus on this issue and offer insightful reflections on the relationship between religion and society.