Debate surrounding the proposed repeal of the controversial Clean Water Rule is just one example of how competing interests tend to drive our approach to environmental conflicts. As we strive to balance environmental protections with economic development and respect for indigenous populations, strategies for finding common ground may come from an unexpected place—religion.

In The Spirit of Dialogue, trained mediator and scientist Aaron Wolf shows how ideas from faith traditions can pave the way toward successful conflict prevention, transformation, and resolution. Drawing on his experience mediating water conflicts for the World Bank and 12 years of travel and research, Wolf engages religion not for the purpose of dogma, but for the practical process of mediation.

Lucy Moore, author of Common Ground on Hostile Turf said The Spirit of Dialogue “brings the reader to the negotiating table to witness breakthroughs that seem inexplicable. But within the frameworks of philosophy, cosmology, and religion, we begin to see inside these mysteries of human behavior and appreciate the power within ourselves and each other to achieve the unlikely.”

Check out an excerpt from the book below.