I receieved a question just now asking if I had a suggestion for a good book on religious tolerance, perhaps focusing on the three Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Here is my response:
Bookpeople has some great children books on understanding and respecting other faiths. We have some of them in our own church library.
You didn’t ask my opinion about this part so feel free to ignore it, but I think it is a mistake to think of religious unity within the three Abrahamic faiths. The fact that we haven’t gotten along is a pretty good indication that among the things we have in common is the root of religious violence.
What unifies humankind cannot be an accident of history or something we ourselves have invented even with divine help. What would unify humankind would be for all of us to find our common roots into nature and to discover and agree to those principles that would be fair to all people, not just the three Abrahamic traditions.
For the three Abrahamic religions to celebrate what makes them unique, might also be to celebrate what sets us at odds with nature and with each other. So I would find books for children that celebrate Buddhism Hinduism, Wiccan traditions, humanist and Atheist traditions. As long as other worldviews frighten us we are nearer to violence against one another.
Every religion has movements toward and away from these common roots. We must learn to maximize what makes religion rational and compassionate, and to minimize anyone’s claims to special revelation or status.