Arvind Sharma is Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University, Canada. He has held fellowships at the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, and the Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University, and at the Brookings Institute. He also received a Maxwell Fellowship and was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. His publications include Hinduism and Human Rights (2004) and Hinduism On Its Own Terms (2016). He is also the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (2017).
Arvind Sharma has been a member of the faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University since 1987. He has held fellowships at the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, and the Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University, and at the Brookings Institute. He also received a Maxwell Fellowship and was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. He is the author of Are Human Rights Western? (2006) and Religious Studies and Comparative Methodology (2005).

Introduction Arvind Sharma
There Is No Clash of Civilizations Shirin Ebadi
To Secularize Religion and Spiritualize Politics Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Religion Is Central to Human Affairs Didiji
Religion Is About How You Behave: The Essential Virtue is Compassion Karen Armstrong
Religion and Human Rights Shirin Ebadi
Women in World Religions: Discrimination, Liberation and Backlash Rosemary Radford Ruether
Fundamentalism and Interfaith Dialogue Harvey Cox
What on Earth is Evangelism? Rev. Donald Posterski
Religion in an Age of Anxiety Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Proselytization and Religious Freedom Dayananda Saraswati
Religion, Identity and Violence Rabbi David Rosen
Religion and Science Huston Smith
Panel Discussion: Worlds Religions, Human Rights and Same-Sex Marriage Margaret Somerville, Janet Buckingham, Brendt Hawkes, Douglas Elliott
A Jaina Perspective on Non-Violence and Warfare Padmanabh S. Jaini
Panel Discussion: Perspectives on the Conflict in the Middle East Rabbi Dow Marmur, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Gregory Baum, Karen Armstrong
Religion and Media Seyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi
Religion and Media Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
The Dawson College Incident Professor Shanta Srivastava
Pieces Of The Jigsaw Puzzle Arvind Sharma
Afterword
Jean Duhaime
About the Contributors

Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution unleashes religion's true potential to do good by bridging the modern divide between religion and an ever pervasive secular society, a notion often loathed by individuals on both sides of the religious aisle. As noted scholars such as Huston Smith, Karen Armstrong, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Harvey Cox, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr explain throughout the conversations related in this text, people of varied and conflicting faiths can come together to engage in civil, useful dialogue, and members of quite varied religious traditions can work together for the benefit of all humankind and can help defuse the world's current epidemic of violence. By showing how religion is an instrument in human affairs that can be tuned for both good and evil, this book lays the groundwork for an important cooperative effort to blossom.
Furthermore, today's trend of associating all religion with suspicion has spiraled into a dangerous situation-that in discarding all religion because some of it causes harm, one risks throwing away the baby with the bathwater. Books such as When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett, and God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens have created quite a sensation, leaving the impression that religion, at its root, brings more heartache than handshakes. This development has dismayed many scholars, students, and practitioners of religion, of all faiths, who believe that only half the story-the negative half-is being told. Although demonstrating that certain religious beliefs have surely contributed to the violence that has occurred in this century, this book also explores how other religious teachings can help solve the epidemic of violence.