Fostering Religious Tolerance and Harmonization in Ghana: A Discussion on Efforts Made by Various Stakeholders

Abstract

Issues of religious diversity and interfaith relations take centre stage in today’s postmodern world. The contemporary world has highlighted the need for peace and communal solidity. The intense longing for peace and harmony has also become prevalent in the Ghanaian society. This article justifies that religion is capable of ensuring and stimulating that peace much desired through decent and formidable interfaith dialogue because the religious devotees in the country are more than those who claim not to belong to any religion. Such initiatives to ensure societal peace and harmony can either be communal or individualistic. Right from the past to the present, there have been individual and collaborative efforts to ensure and enhance religious tolerance, harmony and equanimity in Ghana. This study discussed some of the initiatives or efforts that have been made by selected governmental and religious institutions or bodies and individuals to foster religious tolerance and peace in religious pluralistic Ghana. It concluded that the peace that Ghana currently enjoys has not occurred by accident but by the efforts of the various religious groups and individuals discussed in the article. It recommends that these interfaith organizations put in more effort to become proactive and not reactive in order to make them relevant in public discourse on fostering religious peace.

Keywords

• interreligious dialogue
• religious tolerance
• harmonization
• religious pluralism
• peace