In Stepping Stones to Other Religions: A Christian Theology of Inter-religious Dialogue, Dermot A. Lane delivers on what he pines for in this fine book, namely a theology that proffers hope. Beginning with a contextualization of the theological enterprise within the postmodern world marked by globalization and multiculturalism, Lane offers an assessment of the challenges, opportunities, and possibilities for meaningful and substantive interreligious dialogue. The author proposes a reconstruction of a theology that acknowledges the contextual, embedded, and social nature of human beings and affirms the transformative power of participatory knowledge that is derived from self-transcending encounters with others. An overview of the Catholic Church's new attitudinal and theological disposition toward ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, which has evolved subsequent to the seminal teachings of the Second Vatican Council (particularly the watershed document, Nostra Aetate) and the late Pope John Paul II, serves to establish interreligious dialogue as an essential and constitutive dimension of what it means to be Christian. Lane's book uses the conciliar documents; Pope John Paul II's affirmation of the universal salvific will of God; the activity of God's Spirit and the presence of seeds of the Word in other religions; and the elements of truth, grace, and goodness operative in other religions to construct an overarching framework in which to imagine new theological elements and guidelines for interreligious dialogue that move beyond prevailing exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralistic models toward greater collaboration, mutual understanding, and enrichment among religions.

Accompanying Lane's comprehensive survey of the contributions of contemporary Catholic magisterial teachings pertaining to interreligious dialogue is a thorough assessment of the significant contributions to interreligious dialogue proffered in the teachings of Karl Rahner, SJ. Combined with the Pneumatologies inherent in Scripture and the pneumatological teachings of patristic theology, Bernard Lonergan, and Frederick Crowe, these sources collectively serve to underpin and inform Lane's advocacy of a pneumatological starting point for interreligious dialogue that accentuates the Spirit as universally present within the world, constituting the dignity of all persons, and making it possible for all to come to know God while providing an orientation to God's word. Although his approach is well grounded, Lane nonetheless recognizes the challenges to traditional anthropological, ecclesiological, and christological methodologies that will accompany a shift toward a Spirit-centered theology inverting traditional theological foci operative in these methodologies. However, Lane posits that such changes in foci will inform the kind of kenosis that a Spirit-centered theological approach to interreligious dialogue requires, as this approach prepares Christians for understanding the unfolding action of God's universal saving designs via the action of the Spirit outside of Christianity proper, while being simultaneously associated with the paschal mystery and therefore faithful to a Pneumatology ultimately orientated to the Christ event. In this way, a Spirit-centered approach to interreligious dialogue affirms that other religions afford truth, goodness, and grace in the Spirit, while at the same time calling for a paschal methodology that is illuminative of the unique place and role of Christ within God's universal salvific designs.

Additionally, such a Spirit-centered approach to interreligious dialogue also seriously incorporates the eschatological dimension of God's salvific designs in and through Christ by acknowledging that the redemptive work begun in Christ awaits a consummation not yet fully realized. Furthermore, it does much to facilitate the contemporary shift from a propositional understanding of revelation to an understanding of revelation as an interpersonal self-communication of God to all persons, facilitated, rendered intelligible, and made acceptable by the Spirit.

Lane's concluding analysis of recent developments within Roman Catholic-Jewish interreligious dialogue acts as a paradigm for future dialogues among all the religions as considerations of God's universal salvific will via covenants orientated to God's word inherent in Judaism and Christianity might in turn inform dialogues with the other religions. Indeed, one may hope that Lane's work itself is a stepping stone to another book in which he more fully draws forth the implications of the Spirit-centered theological approach to interreligious dialogue that he outlines here by specifically and substantively applying his pneumatological vision to other religions. Such a work would not only continue the author's significant contribution to interreligious dialogue, but perpetuate the hope he inspires with this work.

With its considerations of theology in the modern and postmodern contexts, its elaborations on the roles of dialogue and imagination within the theological enterprise, and its comprehensive overview and critical engagement with seminal magisterial and theological contributions to interreligious dialogue, this book offers an excellent resource for all interested in and committed to interreligious dialogue and its possibilities for a greater cultural and sociopolitical awareness facilitating mutual understanding, peace, and world transformation. Additionally, the author's own vision of a Spirit-centered approach to interreligious dialogue provides a significant advance in interreligious theology, opening new horizons for critical inquiry regarding the relationship between Christianity and the other religions. The book ought to be a mainstay in theological libraries and would be a superb resource for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars.