In the midst of growing religious plurality and diversity, interreligious dialogue has been an increasingly prominent response to this situation. The present project analyzes the history and significance of interreligious encounter, particularly in the U.S. American context but with implications that go beyond this setting. The special focus centers on the hermeneutical character of dialogue and the transformative element present therein, examining what transformation means primarily through the framework of David Tracy's philosophical work, as well as that of others.;After elucidating the background and elemental conditions for productive interreligious dialogue, it is argued that the transformation that may and often does come from interfaith encounter involves a realized experience of truth disclosure. This even of growth that occurs in dialogue is explicated as transformation by integration---incorporating religious elements of the encountered other into one's own religious identity. This involves a renewal, expansion, enhancement, deepening, of understanding. For further illustration of this transformative element, this project looks at the Buddhist and Christian traditions and the soteriological frameworks for transformation they express. It is forwarded that interreligious dialogue, as a religious practice, engenders and supports the liberating transformation present in each religious worldview.
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