THIS is a book both about dialogue and also formed through dialogue.

In what he calls an "ongoing pilgrimage", author Michael Barnes SJ shares a personal dialogue between his Christian faith and contemporary religious pluralism.

He brings his academic background and pastoral experience to the task; Barnes has taught for more than 30 years at Heythrop College in the University of London, has been director of Westminster Interfaith and ran the De Nobili Centre for Dialogue.

Today he is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Roehampton and a research associate at the School of Advanced Study in the University of London. He is a specialist in Asian religions.

Barnes is convinced that Christian faith comes truly alive when it is communicated and brought into dialogue with what is 'other', different or even strange.

The central conviction of Ignatian spirituality that God is to be found "in all things" is the foundational principle that forms what he calls "a great movement of faith, hope and love in which the whole of humanity is caught up".

Ignatian Spirituality and Interreligious Dialogue: Reading Love's Mystery, by Michael Barnes SJ is published by Messenger Publications, £22.95.