Notice how each tiny branch mirrors the whole?

That's a fractal—nature's pattern repeating at every scale.

By scale, we mean what you see at the base, you'll see at the stem, and at the branches, leading into its crown.

Fractals aren't just in broccoli. They're in cauliflower too!

OK, they're not just in every baby's most reviled vegetables.

Fractals can be found all over the place. They're all over nature.

You can observe them in leaves, especially ferns, in sea shells and coral reefs, and even as coastlines when the sea hits land.

And not just in nature and geography - they're expressed in art - paintings and sculptures - appreciated in music, and even investigated on stock market charts.

Just as fractals display self-similar patterns at every magnification of scale, religious diversity manifests recurring structures at multiple levels:

• within individual believers

• within single traditions

• between different religions

The fractal approach identifies recurring structural patterns across and within religious traditions—typological tensions that manifest at multiple scales (doctrinal, practical, institutional). 

Some examples: 

• world-affirming vs. world-renouncing

• teacher/prophet vs. divine incarnation/saviour

• personal vs. impersonal ultimate

“This book is the most significant contribution to date to have emerged out of debates in theology of religions and comparative theology over the last couple of decades.”

Prof. Perry Schmidt-Leukel is Professor of Religious Studies & Intercultural Theology at the University of Münster, Germany.

• Delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at University of Glasgow (2015)

• Received various distinctions including the Höffmann Academic Award for Intercultural Competence (2019) and the Frederick J. Streng Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies (2020)

• Published 30+ books on interfaith relations and pluralist theology

• Leading worldwide expert on Buddhist-Christian dialogue and religious diversity

His publications include:

• The Celestial Web: Buddhism and Christianity–A Different Comparison (Orbis 2024)

• Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Theology: The Gifford Lectures (Orbis 2017)

• God Beyond Boundaries: A Christian and Pluralist Theology of Religions (Waxmann 2017)

• Buddhism and Religious Diversity, 4 volumes (Routledge 2013)

• Islam and Inter-Faith Relations: The Gerald Weisfeld Lectures 2006 (SCM 2007)

His theological insight of applying the fractal lens onto religious diversity was bestowed the academic honour of being the sole focus of peer review in an edited volume by esteemed theologians Profs. Paul Knitter and Alan Race:

• New Paths for Interreligious Theology: Perry Schmidt-Leukel's Fractal Interpretation of Religious Diversity (Orbis 2019)

by

Perry Schmidt-Leukel

from

'A Preliminary Orientation—Religious Pluralism'

in

Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Dialogue: The Gifford Lectures—An Extended Edition

What all these different theories have in common is that they provide nonreligious interpretations and explanations of religion. 

That is, they assume that religious understandings of reality are basically wrong. 

On this premise they try to explain why religion, although being wrong, is nevertheless such a widespread phenomenon. They tend to see the diversity of religions as a further confirmation of their atheistic or naturalistic premise. 

On the assumption that religion, if it were true, should be far more homogeneous than it actually is, the fact of religious diversity seems to support their view that religion is basically false. 

However, it is not only from a nonreligious perspective that religious diversity requires some explanation and interpretation. Religions too have to confront questions such as why their own religion is not the only one in the world, why there are any other religions at all, and why other people follow other religious ideas and practices. 

An astonishing fact, often overlooked, is that the traditional religious interpretations of religious diversity have not been that much different from the nonreligious ones. One could even argue that some religious interpretations have been, in a sense, forerunners of the nonreligious ones. 

Like naturalists, many traditional religious thinkers also assumed that all religions are wrong—with just one single exception, which is their own religion. In a sense, nonreligious interpretations have just adopted this religious view on religious others, without making that particular exception. 

Penn Jillette, an American illusionist and committed atheist, made that point jokingly clear: 

The Jews say: “Christians and Muslims are wrong.” The Christians say: “Jews and Muslims are wrong.” The Muslims say: “Jews and Christians are wrong.” 

The Atheist says: “You are all right.”

The negative interpretation of religious diversity, so widespread among traditional religious views, clearly undermines the credibility of each religious perspective.

This was already emphasized in the eighteenth century by David Hume when he compared the rival religious views to a case in court. If there are a number of witnesses all refuting each other, whom should the judge believe? 

Presumably none of them. 

Is it inevitable for religions to take such a negative stance on religious diversity as they have often done in the past? Or are there any other options that they might choose?

Real Conversations, Real Stories

Share your lived experiences of navigating multiple faiths, cultures, and identities in psychologically safe small groups. No theory-dumping—just genuine peer dialogue that honours complexity.

Walk Singapore's Fractal Landscape

Fireside Wisdom with a World Expert

Custom-designed by Being Bridges —the award-winning social innovators in diversity, interfaith dialogue, and people development

• Grand Prize Winner: International Mission:Unite Hackathon

• Ministry of Defence Total Defence SME Award

• Mentor to the Singapore Design Awards Winner

• Featured and praised by: 

  • Singapore's Former President

  • the Minister of Culture, Community, and Youth

  • the Minister of Education

  • Singapore's Cardinal Archbishop, Mufti, and Chief Rabbi

  • and many others!

• Granted a Papal blessing by Pope Francis, Sep 2024

When:
Saturday 14 February 2026,
10:00am – 3:00pm

Where:
The Working Capitol

No. 1 Keong Saik Road, Singapore
Ground Floor, 'The Overlap' Room

(Enter through Tipo Restaurant)

Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4CaDFKsE7GBNFCzP6

Ticket Price Investment - Free registration for community participants subsidised by:

• Being Bridges

• the RSIS

• the Harmony Centre

• Boon Lay, Pioneer, and Nanyang Harmony Circles

What are Harmony Circles?

I'm not religious—is this for me?

Absolutely. We explore SBNR (spiritual but not religious) identities, hybrid belonging, and secular meaning-making too. Fractals appear everywhere, including consumer culture.

What if I don't know anything about theology?

Perfect. This workshop starts with your experiences, not textbooks. Prof. Schmidt-Leukel helps us discover patterns we're already living.

Will this be preachy or promote one faith?

No. We practice genuine pluralism—honouring differences without collapsing them into sameness. Expect respectful curiosity, not conversion.

I'm an introvert—do I have to share publicly?

Small-group storytelling is designed for psychological safety. Share at your comfort level. Even listening contributes.

Can I bring a friend?

Local Roots, Global Reach

A Consulus Global partner & EoC Asia-Pacific business, Being Bridges is a proudly Singapore-based social enterprise that brings communities together to explore the stories, traditions, and beliefs that shape who we are.

Doing Dialogue Differently

• We curate community conversations.

• We engage culture, ethnicity, and faith.

• We make tools for social impact.

Specialising in interfaith and intercultural complexity, we develop products and programmes that carefully cultivate community conversations around culture, religion & ethnicity, with particularly strong roots supporting partners through innovative and even unconventional diversity projects. 

Amongst our varied services are Diversity By Default, a conversational card game bridging knowledge gaps between different sectors of diversity and Being Guests, an immersive 360° Virtual Reality (VR) platform for pedagogically effective interfaith learning journeys.

Distinguished Mentions:

“Basil and Nick believe that it's possible to have fun while generating constructive dialogue. They developed a card game called Diversity By Default which features diversity-related questions. Such initiatives help to dispel misperceptions, build bonds, and create trust.”

Former President of Singapore
Mdm. Halimah Yacob

Trainings & Workshops

Our award-winning capacity-building workshops incorporating multicultural conversations for communities of all sizes

Festivals & Roadshow Kiosks

Modular configurations for corporate and community booths featuring our award-winning 360° interactive VR tours

Talks & Panel Discussions

Realtime storytelling for lunchtime brown bags, firesides, assembly addresses, AMA's, forums, multi-speaker panels & roundtables 

Immersive Learning Trails

Our latest service offering: Learning journeys that are pedagogically sound built atop the multimodal stories from our award-winning modules

Consultation & White Label

Behind-the-scenes specialist consultation for programmes, products, and projects as well as White Label services & licensing

Sustainable Social Impact

About the RSIS at NTU

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) is a global graduate school and think tank focusing on strategic studies and security affairs. 

The graduate school offers Master of Science Programmes in Strategic Studies, International Relations, International Political Economy and Asian Studies. 

As a school, RSIS fosters a nurturing environment to develop students into first-class scholars and practitioners.

As a think tank, RSIS conducts policy-relevant and forward-looking research in both national and international security, science and technology, society and economic and environmental sustainability. 

RSIS also produces academic research on security and international affairs. 

• It publishes scholarly research in top-tier academic journals and leading university presses, and distributes policy research in a timely manner to a wide range of readers. 

• Relevant RSIS research contributes to rule-making and norm-setting in cyber domain and digitalisation. 

• RSIS works closely with other academic institutions and partners including international and regional organisations, global think tanks as well as national agencies to conduct policy relevant research in various areas of interest.

About the SRP Specifically