About the Corless
The Corless is a Bay Area nonprofit supporting interfaith dialogue.
We have our roots in the work and estate of Roger Corless – who practiced in both Catholic and Buddhist traditions – but we are more generally interested in promoting dialogue in one of the ways Roger once put it: dialogue as a process “in which all parties to the dialogue would be open to change but no party would be able to predict the change that might occur...”
This is a broad idea of dialogue. But he also had a specific set of ideas outlined in a series of books, articles, and lectures; indeed, his religious scholarship and practice were determined by a very personal experience of dialogue: the Buddhist and Catholic parts of himself in conversation with each other.
a process in which all parties to the dialogue would be open to change but no party would be able to predict the change that might occur
Roger once envisioned creating a local community of scholars to help support this process, but he understood that the Bay Area was already rich with such organizations – indeed, that's why he wanted it to be based here – so he made it clear that he wanted this community to be primarily a facilitator; he didn't want it to be allowed to "grow into an institution" which would compete with the others.
His original vision was never realized. The specifics of that vision required nothing less than Roger himself – and his active intelligence, ambitions, connections, and care – and the Roger who could have directed that organization is no longer with us. Our goals are a bit different, but of one spirit: we will work with local and international organizations to encourage and support efforts in interfaith dialogue; we will make published and unpublished works by Roger more available; and we hope to carry on Roger's scholarship by supporting scholars working in the field of interfaith dialogue, especially those critically engaging with Roger's work.
The first drafts of a new world history have already been written. This has been called a century of conflict and clash; and it certainly is a century of encounter.
Roger's ideas – and those of others like him – are some of the most valuable tools we have to make those encounters embracing.
Let's use them.