One idea is that all religions would turn out to be parts of one whole (either one religion or at least one conglomeration of religions). Diversity is the differences in colour, ethnicity, abilities, age, gender, beliefs, interests, socioeconomic (class), marital or partnership status, sexual orientation, geographic, academic/professional backgrounds, opinions, backgrounds, thinking, experiences and many other characteristics. 1950) proposes what he calls a true religious pluralism, which is nonetheless best understood as a version of inclusivism, as it allows its proponent to maintain the superiority of her own religion. What about the religions practices are they all complementary? The impetus for this change was fueled by statements from that council (their Latin titles: Lumen Gentium, Ad Gentes, Nostra Aetate, Gaudium et Spes, Heilsoptimismus), which are in various ways positive towards non-Catholics. (Dupuis 2001; Burton 2010), Historically, Jewish intellectuals have usually adopted an inclusivist rather than an exclusivist view about other religions. And how can the ultimist pluralist demand such changes? The historical Buddha, the man Gautama is, in this doctrine, a Transformation Body (or Apparitional Body, Nirmanakaya) of one of these, as are other Buddhas in time and space. A core pluralist claims that all religions of some kind share a common core, and that this is really what matters about the religions; their equal value is found in this common core. (Legenhausen 2006), Other objections have been centered on the status of Hicks personae. It is not hard to find religions or religious cults which would not plausibly be thought of as good in the way(s) that a pluralist has in mind. sexual orientation. 3, 3-4). On the other hand, many theorists want to adopt the friendly and broad-minded sounding label pluralism for their theory, even though they clearly hold that one religion is uniquely valuable. Religious pluralism in some contexts means an informed, tolerant, and appreciative or sympathetic view of the various religions. Some practices seem compatible, such as church attendance and mindfulness meditation. (Burton 2010) On the other hand, some religions teachings are simply false and their practices are unhelpful; the contents of their prescribed beliefs and practices matter. (OConnor 1999; King 2008; Bogardus 2013), Others object that given the transcategoriality or ineffability of the Real, even with the above qualifications, there is no reason to think that interaction with the Real should be ethically beneficial, or that it should have any connection at all to any religious value. (Krkkinen 2003; Netland 2001) The most famous of these has been the view (held by some Christians) that all non-Christians are doomed to an eternity of conscious suffering in hell. Asians have a lower homeownership rate than the U.S. public overall (59% vs. 64%). It is a mistake, Abe holds, to regard any god as ultimate, and monotheists must revise their understanding as above, if true inter-religious dialogue and peace are to be achievable. 2) He was what we now call a pluralistic Hindu (and most Hindus would add that he was also an unorthodox Hindu). John Cobbs Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism., Hasker, William. Because of this, arguably exclusivism (or inclusivism, see section 4 below) is a default view in religious traditions. Heim suggests that we should instead assume that other religions both pursue and achieve real and distinct religious salvations (goals or ends). As explained above (section 3c) a major impetus for this has been statements issued by the latest official council (Vatican II, 1962-5). One prominent scholar argues that the neo-Hindu position on religious diversity (that is, modern Hindu pluralism) is not the view that all religions are equal, one, true, or the same. A muted ally in this was the influential religious scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-86), whose work focused on comparing mythologies, and on what he viewed as an important, primitive religious outlook, which separates things into the sacred and the profane. The term exclusivist was originally a polemical term, chosen in part for its negative connotations. (On the majority inclusivism, see section 4b below.) (Long 2011) Still, some Hindus object to various kinds of pluralism. (Hick 2004; Quinn and Meeker 2000) Hicks approach is original, thorough, and informed by a broad and deep knowledge of many religions. Some authors, usually ones who wish to celebrate these facts, call them religious pluralism, but this entry reserves this label for a family of theories about the facts of religious diversity. A typical Rabbinic view is that although non-Jews may be reconciled to God, and thus gain life in the world to come, by keeping a lesser covenant which God has made with them, still Jews enjoy a better covenant with God. The exclusivist-inclusivist-pluralist trichotomy has become standard since the 1980s. On such a metaphysics, any apparent substance (being, entity) turns out to be one or more events or processes. While some characteristics of diversity include age, gender, the color of the skin. The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity engages with one of the most characteristic features of modern society. 1) Race as a negative social construct: physical appearance is used to discriminate, to exclude, to exploit, to abuse, and/or to profile, as in educational systems, traffic and criminal systems, housing and banking/mortgage lending, and medical care. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl]. But one may talk also of negative religious pluralism in which most or all religions have little or no positive value and are equal in this respect. Still, given that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, his teachings and practices should, and some day will supersede all previous ones. 3) To say that it is either, Hick realizes, would be to hand an epistemic victory to either the monotheists or the absolutists (ultimists). (Legenhausen 2009), The term religious pluralism is almost always used for a theory asserting positive value for many or most religions. | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples ), which argues that previous versions of Buddhist teaching were mere expedient means, that is, non-truths taught because in his great wisdom, the Buddha knew that at its then immature stage, humanity would be aided only by those teachings. It's also important because in the 21st century there are global problems and issues which seemingly have religious origins and which will take a concerted effort of people of different faiths to help resolve. Buddhism has long been very doctrinally diverse, and many schools of Buddhism argue that theirs is the truest teaching or the best practice, while other versions of the dharma are less true or less conducive to getting the cure, and have now been superseded. This patient's religious beliefs have led him to pursue mindfulness and meditation as ways of . Religious Pluralism and the Some-Are-Equally-Right View., Yandell, Keith. Religion and religion diversity are expressed by believers to cause strong opinions and emotions in all environments. Swedish philosopher Mikael Stenmark explores what he calls the some-are-equally-right view about religious diversity, and discusses a version of it on which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are held to possess equal amounts of religiously important truths. It attracted widespread discussion and criticism, and Hick has engaged in a spirited debate with all comers. Particularly central to any religions teaching are its diagnosis of the fundamental problem facing human beings and its suggested cure, a way to positively and permanently resolve this problem. Wide distances, poor communication and transportation, bad weather, and the clerical shortage dictated religious variety from town to town and from region to region. If the core is true teachings, theyll all be true (to some degree). Facts and Theories of Religious Diversity Scholars distinguish seven aspects of religious traditions: the doctrinal and philosophical, the mythic and narrative, the ethical and legal, the ritual and practical, the experiential and emotional, the social and organizational, and the material and artistic. It is difficult to make a fully clear distinction between exclusivist and inclusivist approaches. At bare minimum, the slogan that all religions are true means that all religions are in some way directed towards one Truth, where this is understood as an ultimate reality. The following was edited from Brie Loskota's opening remarks at Reimagining Religion: A Conversation about the Future of Religion, held at University of Southern California on February 9, 2017.. We are in a period of flux, a period of rapid and continuous change, where the old order is being torn down, where people are disaffiliating from groups, and where institutional life is being . Diversity, Divisions, Religion, Caste, Secularism, News, Theocratic states, Terrorism, Fundamentalism, Extremism, Congress, BJP, Communism. Theorists nearly always loosen the requirement with regard to what they view as the one most true and/or most effective religion. Inclusivism for some authors just means a friendlier or more open-minded exclusivism. Insofar as a religion claims to possess a diagnosis of the fundamental problem facing humans and a cure, that is, a way to permanently and positively resolve this problem, it will then assume that other, incompatible diagnoses and cures are incorrect. But it is very rare for a scholar to go beyond merely assuming or asserting some sort of causal connection between the various theories about religious diversity and the above virtues and vices. For example, in Theravada Buddhism, one must realize that there is no self, whereas in Advaita Vedanta Hinduism one must gain awareness that ones true self is none other than the ultimate reality, Brahman. Letters by Pius XII (r. 1939-58) declared that a by an unconscious desire and longing non-Catholics may enjoy a saving relationship with the church. When it comes to freedom of religion, it matters how people of faith are spoken of in politics and the media. 3. (Sharma 1999, ch. Diversity is a wide array of people that come from different backgrounds, lifestyles, social experiences, races, and religions. Religious diversity is the fact that there are significant differences in religious belief and practice. Diversity recognises that everyone is different in a . Judaism is . There are three serious problems with verificationist pluralism. An informed Christian must concede that Jews and Muslims too believe this, and that they teach it as a central doctrine. This transformation, Hick theorizes, is really the point of religion. The religious composition and social context varies considerably by generation. The underlying metaphysics here is that of process philosophy, in which events are the basic or fundamental units of reality. It is more real than all that comes from it. Hinduism., de Cea, Abraham Vlez. 4. RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY. As to religious diversity, Abe suggests that we view the dynamic activity Emptiness (also called Openness) as ultimate, and as manifesting as various Gods, that is various monotheistic deities, and Lords, which are human religious teachers, whether manifestations of a god, as in the case of Jesus, or just pre-eminent servants of a god, as with Moses or Muhammad. (Burton 2010; Kiblinger 2005; and section 4c below) But in modern times, some have constructed a novel and distinctively Buddhist pluralism using the Mahayana doctrine of expedient means (Sanskrit: upaya). But some had always held on to theories about ways into the church other than water baptism, and since the European discovery of the New World it had become clear that the gospel had not been preached to the whole world, and many held that such pagans were non-culpably ignorant of the gospel. (Byrne 2004; Feuerbach 1967). However, they nearly always have at least one criterion for excluding religions as inferior in the aspect(s) they focus on. This, it is hoped, rules out anyone having grounds for believing any particular religion to be the uniquely best religion. It is here described as Identist pluralism because his theory claims that people in all the major religions interact with one and the same transcendent reality, variously called God, the Real, and the Ultimate Reality., Hick viewed religious belief as rationally defensible, and held that one may be rational in trusting the veridicality of ones religious experiences. This seems incompatible with Heims agnosticism about which, if any, of the diagnosed problems is the fundamental one. Stenmark views it as most similar to identist pluralism (see 2e below). While there have been Buddhist teachers and movements who have been exclusivists, in general Buddhism has been inclusivist. In other words, this Ultimate Reality, due to the various qualities of human minds, appears to various people as personae, such as God, the Trinity, Allah, Vishnu, and also as impersonae such as Emptiness, Nirvana, Nirguna Brahman, and the Dao. (McDermott and Netland 2014, 148) But these are sometimes tempered with loopholes such as: a universal chance to hear the gospel at or after death, a free pass to people who die before the age of accountability, or the view that less was required to be saved in pre-Christian times. Characteristics of cultural diversity : Multiplicity of cultures Each worldview is the product of the individual development of a people. This was a polemic against non-Mahayana versions of Buddhist dharma (teaching). 2013, 333) For instance, if Theravada Buddhism is correct that humans are trapped in the cycle of rebirth by craving and ignorance, even if one goes to a heavenly realm upon death, such as envisaged by non-Buddhist religions, one is still trapped in samsara, in this realm of suffering, albeit at a higher tier. (Prothero 2010, 13-6; Yandell 1999, 16-9), Scholarly study of a wide range of religions, and comparison and evaluation of them, was to a large extent pioneered by Christian missionaries in the nineteenth century seeking to understand those whom they sought to convert. So too at least some other religions must still be means for salvation, though not necessarily to the same degree, for God wills the salvation of all humankind. Later on, Hick firmly settled on the view that this Real should be thought of as ineffable. Religions span national, geographic, cultural and ethnic boundaries and may be the focus of individual and family identification Religious institutions and observances play an important role in catering for people's social, psychological and cultural needs as well as their spiritual needs. (Smart 1996) Religious traditions differ along all these dimensions. All religions are equal? (Sharma 1979) But if there is no one clear modern Hindu pluralism, it remains that various modern Indian thinkers have held to versions of core or identist pluralism. (Heim 1995, 7). But others teach that the ultimate reality is a perfect self, a being capable of knowledge, will, and intentional action. It is impossible that all three experiences are veridical. Wouldnt this be to attribute more reality to God than shes willing to? However, God has ordained Nirvana as a goal suitable for some non-Christians to both pursue and attain. Finally, inclusivist theories try to steer a middle course by agreeing with exclusivism that one religion has the most value while also agreeing with pluralism that others still have significant religious value. Recent Islamic thinkers have independently come to conclusions parallel to those of Rahner, while critiquing various pluralist theories as entailing the sin of unbelief (kufr), the rejection of Islam. Influential German theologian Karl Rahner (1904-84), in his essay Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions, argues that before people encounter Christianity, other religions may be the divinely appointed means of their salvation. But Stenmarks some-are-equally-right view can also be seen as a form of core pluralism, the core being truths about the one God and our need for relationship with God. But these lesser ways should and eventually will give way to Christianity, the truest religion, intended for all humankind. Unfortunately, it is often used with some mix of the above values in mind, leaving it unclear exactly which values are pertinent. Second, the claim that meaningfulness requires the possibility of empirical verification has little to recommend it, and is self-refuting (that is, the claim itself is not empirically verifiable). The gods and lords will stay at the provisional levels of truth and reality, the levels which a fully enlightened person, as it were, sees beyond. This is not compatible with his thesis that Vishnu and others are phenomena of the Real, that is, culturally conditioned ways that the Real appears to us. Importantly, he construes the various religious goals as experiences obtaining in this life and continuing beyond. They hope that each religion can, while remaining distinct, begin to construct global theologies, influenced by the truths and values of other religions. Griffin and Cobb seem to attribute the deepest insight to those who think the ultimate reality is an impersonal, indescribable non-thing. Consider the claim that the cosmos was intentionally made. Such would be the work of a religiously embedded and committed theology of religious diversity, not of a general philosophy of religious diversity. A difficulty for any pluralist theory is how to restrict the group of equally good religions without losing the appearance of being all-accepting or wholly non-judgmental. Appropriating Immanuel Kants distinction between phenomena, how things appear, and noumena, things in themselves, Hick postulated that the Real is ineffable and is not directly experienced by anyone. One may object that this above proposal is counter to the equalizing spirit of pluralism. (Hick 1995, ch. Though naive pluralisms are not common amongst scholars in relevant fields, they are important to mention because they are entertained by many people as they begin to reflect on religious diversity. RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY. Abes views have been criticized by other scholars as misunderstanding some other religions claims, and as privileging Mahayana Buddhist doctrines, insofar as he understands these doctrines as being truer than others. For example, all non-Christians go to hell, or all non-Buddhists fail to gain Nirvana, or to make progress towards it. Hick realizes the incoherence of dubbing all religions true, for they have core teachings that conflict, and most religions are not shy about pointing out such conflicts. It is only modern people who are blinded by the misunderstanding that science reveals all, who have forgotten it. Diversity and discrimination If the core is veridical experiences, all religions will enable ways to perceive whatever the objects of religious experience are. While such naive exclusivist positions are rarely expounded by scholars, they frequently appear in the work of pluralists and inclusivists, held up as unfortunate, harmful, and unreasonable theories which are in urgent need of replacement. Many religious claims will be logically incompatible with the accepted diagnosis, and many religious practices will be useless or counter-productive when it comes to getting what one believes to be the cure. (Peterson et. This diversity is increasing, even in communities that have previously been relatively homogeneous. A more inclusive and equitable workplace can lead to increased employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. His critics, he argues, are merely asserting without reason that there cannot be a transcategorial reality. It has always been recognized by people outside the smallest and most isolated communities. This view was affirmed by Pope Pius X (r. 1846-78) in his Singulari Quadam (1854): outside the Apostolic Roman Church no one can be savedOn the other handthose who live in ignorance of the true religion, if such ignorance be invincible, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord. (Neuner and Dupuis 2001, 311). Protestant versions of exclusivism can be at least as strict as Augustines. (Smith 2003, 2012). Equally, Advaita Vedanta Hindus must let go of their insistence on Nirguna Brahman as ultimate. However, more recently, it has been argued that all religious doctrines, even Mahayana ones, are expedient means, helpful non-truths, ladders to be kicked away upon attainment of the cure, here understood as a non-cognitive awareness of the ultimate reality. al. They can also influence components of enablement. Later theologians added a baptism of desire, which was either a desire to be baptized or the inclination to form such a desire, either way enough to secure saving membership in the church. Carefully worked out theories of religious pluralism often sound all-inclusive. All religions, then, are equal in that they are responses to the ineffable Ultimate Reality which equally wellor for all we can tell equally wellbring about an ethical improvement in humans, away from self-centeredness and towards other humans and the Ultimate Reality. Others find it excessive that Smith accepts other traditional doctrines, such as that Platos Forms are not only real but alive, that in dreaming the subtle body leaves the body and roams free in the intermediate realm, belief in siddhis (supernatural powers gained by meditation), possession by spirits, psychic phenomena, and so on. Following these same steps, our second . Differing people, perspectives, topics, ideas, etc. If, for example, in his view Allah, Vishnu, and Yahweh are all real and distinct, is Hick thereby committed to polytheism? These are called protected characteristics. Water baptism, from the beginning, had been the initiation rite into Christianity, but it was still unclear what church membership strictly required. It is a mistake to think that the ultimate is any substantial, self-identical thing, even an ineffable one. Among young adults (age 18 to 29), the most common religious identity today is none; more than one in three (34 percent) young adults are religiously unaffiliated. In other contexts, religious pluralism is a normative principle requiring that peoples of all or most religions should be treated the same. (King, 2008; Rowe 1999; Yandell 1999) In response, Hick concedes that some concepts, formal ones, can be applied to the Real, while substantial ones cannot. These connections between theory and character which are believed by some to provide practical arguments for or objections to various theories need to be argued for. This sort of pluralism, following Gunon and Schuon, has been championed by Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. In this and in a later book Heim asserts that such a plurality of ordained religious goals is implied by the doctrine of the Trinity. (Cohn-Sherbok 2005). All the theories discussed in this article are ways that (usually religious) people regard other religions, but here we discuss them abstractly, without descending much into the details of how they would be worked out in the teachings and practices of any one religion. (Prothero 2010). (Griffin 2005a) They do, however, take seriously at least many of the unusual religious experiences people report. The Epistemological Challenge of Religious Pluralism., Ignatius of Antioch, The Letter of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, in, King, Nathan. In this article, religious pluralism refers to a theory about the diversity of religions. The traditional Islamic perspective is that while in one sense Islam was initiated by Muhammad (570-632 CE), Islam in the sense of submission to God was taught by all prior prophets, and so their followers were truly Muslims, that is, truly submitted to God. Morales, Frank [Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya]. A vast diversity of religious and spiritual traditions exists, and your clients may be affiliated with any of them. In principle, it would seem that an exclusivist or inclusivist may have all or most of the good qualities, and one who accepts a theory of religious pluralism may have all or most of the bad qualities. Hicks claim that no human concept applies to the Ultimate Reality has been criticized by many, whove pointed out that Hick applies these concepts to it: being one, being ultimate, being a partial cause of the impersonae and personae, and being ineffable. This baptism of desire was officially affirmed by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1547. Since the latter twentieth century many Roman Catholic theologians have explored non-exclusivist options. Finally, Hick revises his view: the monotheistic gods people experience are mental projections in response to the Real, and not real selves, but since religious people really do encounter great selves in religious experience, we should posit personal intermediaries between humans and the Real, with whom religious people interact. Religious Pluralism., Schmidt-Leukel, Perry. Some theorized, for instance, that a baptism of blood, that is, martyrdom, would be enough to save unbaptized catechumens. Physical appearance becomes a way of allowing particular groups of people to feel that they are . gender reassignment. This naive pluralism is refuted by accurate information on religious differences. the coexistence of various perspectives (political, religious), backgrounds (racial/ethnic, sexual orientation, nationality) gender) variety. In response to his claims that non-pluralistic religious believers are being arrogant, irrational, or arbitrary in believing that one religion (theirs) is the most true one, it has been pointed out that Hick too, as a religious pluralist, holds views which are inconsistent with many or most religions, seemingly preferring his own insights or experiences to theirs, which would, by Hicks own lights, be just as arrogant, irrational, or arbitrary. While this trichotomy is sometimes thought of in terms of general attitudes that a religious person may have towards other religionsapproximately the attitudes of rejection, limited openness, and wide acceptance respectivelyin this article they figure as theories concerning the facts of religious diversity. We could loosely paraphrase Hicks view as being that all religions are false, not that all their teachings are false (for there is much ethical and practical agreement among them), but rather that their core claims about the main object of religious experience and pursuit equally contain falsehoods. All the major religions, then, are really oriented towards, and involve the experience of some reality regarded as ultimate (Creativity, God, or Cosmos). What values are at issue? These ideas, and the fact that religious belief is strongly correlated with birthplace, convinced him that the facts of religious diversity pose irresolvable problems for any exclusivist or inclusivist view, leaving only some form of pluralism as a viable option. Judaism and Other Faiths., Datta, Narendra [Swami Vivekananda]. (Hick 1997). Dabblers and hobbyists freely stitch together unique quilts of religious beliefs and practices, but such constructions seem to make little sense once a believer has accepted any particular religion. Instead, Hick downgrades the importance of true belief to religion. He applies the Mahayana doctrine of the three bodies of the Buddha to other religions. For instance, some religions teach that the ultimate reality (the most real, only real, or primary thing) is ineffable (such that no human concept can apply to it). The degree of religious diversity in the US is also reflected in Americans' core social networks. Some Buddhist texts teach that there can be a solitary Buddha (pratyekabuddha), a person who has gained enlightenment by his own efforts, independently of Buddhist teaching. In modern times, it tries to equalize other religions in the same ways it equalizes the apparently contrary claims and practices internal to it. Has Normative Religious Pluralism a Rationale?. Dissenters are found among historians of religion, who deny that there is and has always been a common core in all of the worlds religions. same? These, Hick holds, are all mistaken; the Ultimate reality is neither personal nor impersonal. A Muslims Proposal: Non-Reductive Religious Pluralism. 2006. The basic idea is that the inclusivist grants more of the values in question to religions other than the single best religion more truth, more salvific efficacy, more veridical experience of the objects of religious experience, more genuine moral transformation, and so forth. Or what sense would it make for an Orthodox Jew, whose religion teaches him to be fruitful and multiply, to employ the Buddhist practice of viewing corpses at a burial ground so as to expunge the unwanted liability of sexual desire? Some philosophers, going against the much-discussed identist pluralism of John Hick (see 2e above) use exclusivism to mean reasonable and informed religious belief which is not pluralist. Presumably not, as she already believes in levels of truth and levels of reality. (Morales 2008), Within the pluralistic mainstream of Hinduism, a popular slogan is that all religions are true, but this may be an expression of almost any sort of positive religious pluralism. true? While elements within it have been sectarian and exclusivistic, modern Hindu thought is usually pluralistic. The latter two classes of beings, but not the first, may be described as personal.. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl]. More Empathy First, some religious claims can be empirically confirmed or disconfirmed. (Sedgwick 2004) Like traditional religions, it too offers a diagnosis of the human condition and a cure. (Burton 2010), In much religious studies, theology, and philosophy of religion literature of the 1980s through the 2000s, the term religious pluralism means the theory of philosopher John Hick.

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