About

Mission

To advance the case for international religious freedom and Track Two diplomacy by drawing on the resources of the Christian faith.

Vision

To make a significant and measurable contribution to the advancement of international religious freedom through better personal relationships, increased public understanding of one another’s faith and practice, and intentional policy change.

Commitments

In order to accomplish our mission and vision, we seek:

To clarify the biblical ground of religious freedom for all --- religious freedom for one means religious freedom for all

To facilitate conversations with religious, social, and political leaders from other faith traditions to clarify our mutual understanding of their faith traditions grounding religious freedom
To produce an academic body of work by a network of scholars that will contribute to a better understanding of religious freedom and Track Two diplomacy of each faith in the public square
To bring the resulting decisions concerning religious freedom and Track Two diplomacy into national and international public policy

Values

Mutual Respect

Mutual respect for each other and each other’s faith, both internally and externally.

Intentional Issue Oriented Engagement

Through intentional engagement leaders cooperate within and across faith communities to meet and discuss both issues and practices in order to clarify differences and seek mutually agreed resolution.

Scholarship

Research and scholarship is an essential aspect of the center where we seek to engage clerics, theologians, philosophers, academics, and diplomats across the academy and culture in conversations which will improve understanding between faiths and advance the cause of religious freedom.

Particularist Faith

We hold to objective truth claims about our faith and stand in the Evangelical Christian tradition. Our claims may be epistemically exclusive but not socially exclusive. Thus, we uphold divisions but are not divisive, we are commanded to love our neighbor and seek the common good.

History

The Center for Track Two Diplomacy & Religious Freedom was founded by Don Smedley in 2011 as the first academic research Center of the Rivendell Institute at Yale. John Hartley joined the Center in 2018; with Darrell Bock coming on shortly after. As a participant, both in the 2008 Workshop and Conference of the A Common Word [ACW] at Yale, Don recognized the need for Christians, particularly traditional Evangelicals, to engage Muslims on intentional issues of public policy particularly along the lines as a scholar-diplomat embodied in Track Two Diplomacy. As a result, in 2009, Don organized and convened an academic panel at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting, entitled, “Evangelicals and A Common Word,” where the first Muslims, two co-authors of the ACW, presented at the society. That laid the seed for the founding of the Center, committed to better Muslim-Christian relations, and public policy change.

Our team recognizes that those changes take place in the context of intentional discussion and building better relations nationally and internationally. Our commitment to religious freedom is global, such that religious freedom for one means religious freedom for all. In 2020, while our primary focus is still on Muslim-Christian relations, we expanded our footprint on religious freedom and Track Two diplomacy to include engagement with all faiths.

People

Directors, Fellows, Steering Committee, and Staff

Don Smedley

Senior Fellow, Rivendell Institute
Co-Director, Center for Track Two Diplomacy and Religious Freedom
Steering Committee, CT2DRF

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John Hartley

Senior Fellow, Rivendell Institute
Co-Director, Center for Track Two Diplomacy and Religious Freedom
Steering Committee, CT2DRF

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Darrell Bock

Steering Committee, CT2DRF
Executive Director of Cultural Engagement, The Hendricks Center
Senior Research Fellow of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary
Naomi Hoffman

Administrative Assistant, Rivendell Institute

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Board of Advisors

TBA

About the Rivendell Institute

Founded at Yale University in 1995, the Rivendell Institute seeks to examine and advance the contribution of a Christian vision of life to human flourishing and the common good within the academy and contemporary culture.

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