It is arguably the doctrinal and philosophical aspects of a religion which are foundational, in that the other aspects can only be understood in light of them. If, for example, in his view Allah, Vishnu, and Yahweh are all real and distinct, is Hick thereby committed to polytheism? (Legenhausen 2002). One may object that this above proposal is counter to the equalizing spirit of pluralism. (Heim 1995, 154-5, 161) This is an important qualifier, as various religious goals clearly presuppose contrary claims. (Legenhausen 2002) Those who believe the ultimate reality to be a unique god object to Smiths view that the ultimate reality is ineffable, and so not, in itself, a god. In their view, those who confess experience of Emptiness, Nirguna Brahman, or the One (of Neoplatonism) behold the ultimate reality (Creativity) as it really is, in contrast to monotheists or cosmos-focused religionists, who latch on to what are limited aspects of Creativity. (Prothero 2010). 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. 7; Griffin 2005b). All such religious mystics really perceive a personal, supreme God, understood panentheistically, as being in the cosmos, akin to how a soul is in a body. Religious diversity - differences within and between religious groups in a society - has re-entered the sociology of religion in new and powerful ways. Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group. Even a Mahayana Buddhist may have a lot of adjusting to do, if she is to admit that believers in a personal God really do experience the greatest entity, and something which is not separate from Emptiness. Still, given that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, his teachings and practices should, and some day will supersede all previous ones. (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. 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. 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. 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. (Hick 2004; Quinn and Meeker 2000) Hicks approach is original, thorough, and informed by a broad and deep knowledge of many religions. Thus, for example, the earliest Buddhist and Christian sources prominently feature staunch criticisms of various rival teachings and practices as, respectively, false and useless or harmful. Religion and religion diversity are expressed by believers to cause strong opinions and emotions in all environments. In modern societies, religion and its diversity is attached to public institutions. : a critical examination of some formulations of the Neo-Hindu position., Smith, Huston. (Peterson et. This would be the view of many naturalists, who hold that all religions are the product of human imagination, and fail to have most or all of the values claimed for them. With the split of the catholic movement into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches, the church was understood in Western contexts to be specifically the Roman Catholic church. These are the undisputed facts of religious diversity. (Neuner and Dupuis 2001, 309-10) It also seems to close the door to non-standard routes to church membership, saying that never was anyone, conceived by a man and a woman, liberated from the devils dominion except by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Tanner 1990, 575) Non-Catholics will go into the everlasting fireunless they are joined to the catholic church before the end of their livesnobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if has shed his blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and the unity of the catholic church. (Tanner 1990, 578), This exclusivistic or rigorist way of understanding the slogan, on which only the Roman Catholic church could provide the cure needed by all humans, was the most common Catholic stance on religious diversity until mid-nineteenth century. 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. The Many Gods of Hick and Mavrodes,, Hick, John. 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. Stenmark views it as most similar to identist pluralism (see 2e below). These negative qualities include but are not limited to: being arrogant, unreasonable, mean, narrow-minded, closed-minded, uninformed, provincial, out of date, xenophobic, bigoted, intolerant, in favor of proselytism, colonialist, and imperialist. 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. These, Hick holds, are all mistaken; the Ultimate reality is neither personal nor impersonal. Social scientists have conceived of diversity in a variety of ways, including the degree to which a society is split into distinct groups; minority group size (in share and/or absolute number); minority group influence (the degree to which multiple groups are visible and influential in civil society); and group dominance (the degree to which one (Long 2011) Still, some Hindus object to various kinds of pluralism. (Dupuis 2001; Meeker 2003; section 3c below) Similarly, Buddhists usually allow that a person may gain positive karma, and so a better rebirth, by the practice of various other religions, helping her to advance, life by life, towards getting the cure by means of the distinctive Buddhist beliefs and practices. (For others see Hick 2004, Introduction.). Hinduism., de Cea, Abraham Vlez. Thus, the Hindu intellectual Ram Mohun Roy (1772/4-1833) held that Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, when understood in their original, non-idolatrous and non-superstitious ways, all teach the important truths about God and humankind, enabling humans to love and serve God. The Equality Act replicates the provisions of previous legislation. Heim suggests that we should instead assume that other religions both pursue and achieve real and distinct religious salvations (goals or ends). (Abe 1985). 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. Such a person is outside of the tradition, yet obtains the cure taught by the tradition. (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. There are numerous cultures in the world, understood as different visions of the cosmos , of humanity itself and of the world, with their traditions, imaginaries, languages and representations. At the same time, they argued that many people who are outside the one church cannot be blamed for this, and so will not be condemned by God. (Hick 1982 ch. (Peterson et. 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. The exclusivist-inclusivist-pluralist trichotomy has become standard since the 1980s. It is far from clear that Heim is correct that this stance will be consistent with the claims of the home religion. Judaism and Other Faiths., Datta, Narendra [Swami Vivekananda]. The religious composition and social context varies considerably by generation. 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. A Muslims Proposal: Non-Reductive Religious Pluralism. 2006. (Hasker 2011) At first Hick evades the issue of polytheism by describing his theory not as a kind of polytheism, but rather as poly-something. He then suggests that two views of the personae are compatible with his theory: that they are mental projections, or that they are real, but angel- or deva like beings, intermediaries and not really gods. Here we can survey only a few of the criticisms that have been made. On the one hand, it is difficult to consistently distinguish inclusivism from exclusivism, because the latter nearly always concedes some significant value to other religions. Religious Pluralism and the Some-Are-Equally-Right View., Yandell, Keith. Roy, however, always retained his Hindu and Brahmin identities. Importantly, he construes the various religious goals as experiences obtaining in this life and continuing beyond. He applies the Mahayana doctrine of the three bodies of the Buddha to other religions. Diversity recognises that everyone is different in a . (Hick 1997). In Mahayana Buddhism, the ultimate reality, a formless but active non-thing, is Emptiness, or the Truth Body (Dharmakaya). While there have been Buddhist teachers and movements who have been exclusivists, in general Buddhism has been inclusivist. Carefully worked out theories of religious pluralism often sound all-inclusive. And how can the ultimist pluralist demand such changes? Thus, if central Christian teachings are true, then so is at least one central teaching of these two rival religions. The nation's population is growing more racially and ethnically diverse - and so are many of its religious groups, both at the congregational level and among broader Christian traditions.But a new analysis of data from the 2014 Religious Landscape Study also finds that these levels of diversity vary widely within U.S. religious groups.. We looked at 30 groups - including Protestant . (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). They hypothesize that some religious mystics really do perceive (without using ordinary sense organs) some ultimate (that is, something regarded as ultimate). It is difficult to make a fully clear distinction between exclusivist and inclusivist approaches. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl] Why I am not a Traditionalist. 2002. 3 There are many ethnic groups in the United States, due in large part to its immigrant population; each of these groups contributes to America's cultural heritage. Immigrant Asians were slightly more likely than U.S.-born Asians to be homeowners in 2019 (60% vs. 56%). 4. Most importantly, it offers a chance to discover the deep self as Being. An increasingly prominent and potentially contentious phenomenon, religious diversity is intimately associated with contemporary issues such as migration, human rights, social cohesion, socio-cultural pluralisation, political jurisdiction, globalisation, and reactionary . This baptism of desire was officially affirmed by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1547. A vast diversity of religious and spiritual traditions exists, and your clients may be affiliated with any of them. 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. Monotheists, after all, take the ultimate being to be a personal god while others, variously called ultimists, absolutists, or monists, hold the ultimate to be impersonal, such as the Dao, Emptiness, Nirguna Brahman, and so forth. (Stenmark 2009) He does not advocate this view, but explores it as an alternative to exclusivism, inclusivism, and Hickian identist pluralism. Has Normative Religious Pluralism a Rationale?. The second part contains answers to questions linked to the treatment of differences in religious education in Croatia and characteristics of teachers that can be linked to this theme. 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 sort of pluralism, following Gunon and Schuon, has been championed by Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. (Legenhausen 2006, 2009). Contrary to widespread depictions of religious blocs of uniform practices, values and concerns, it is essential to emphasize the plurality of . However, they nearly always have at least one criterion for excluding religions as inferior in the aspect(s) they focus on. (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. 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. al. However, such a person is probably only thinking of large, respectable, and historically important religions. But since early modern times, increasing information from travel, publishing, and emigration have forced thoughtful people to reflect more deeply on religious diversity. Must the Mahayanist make any significant revision to accept the proposed threefold reality of Emptiness, gods, and lords? There are three serious problems with verificationist pluralism. 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. This seems incompatible with Heims agnosticism about which, if any, of the diagnosed problems is the fundamental one. (Netland 2001), Others object that Hicks pluralism requires arbitrarily reinterpreting religious language non-literally, and usually as having to do with morality, contrary to what most proponents of those religions believe. race. Such theologians, prominently Hans Kng (b. Such an outlook is commonly perceived as meaningless, hopeless, and devoid of value. Religious Pluralism., Schmidt-Leukel, Perry. 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. Later on, Hick firmly settled on the view that this Real should be thought of as ineffable. Moreover, it seems a necessary truth that if the concept personal doesnt apply to the Real, then the concept non-personal must apply to it. Further, it respects and does not try to eliminate all these differences, and so makes genuine dialogue between members of the religions possible. In this article, religious pluralism refers to a theory about the diversity of religions. (Smith 1992, 2003 ch. 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. 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. This position cannot be self-consistently maintained. One asserts not merely the possibility, but the actuality of salvation for those who are inculpably ignorant of the gospel but who seek God and try to follow his will as expressed through their own conscience. But doesnt Christian tradition demand that each person eventually either achieves fellowship or union with God, or is irrevocably damned? It is also allowed that each major religion really does deliver the cure it claims to (for example, salvation and heaven, Nirvana, Moksha), and is entitled to operate by its own moral and epistemic values. Research on religious diversity has found that when the percentage of a dominant religion and religious diversity are both included, the proportion of the dominant religion is an arithmetic component of the religious diversity measure (Chaves and Gorski 2001; Olson 1999), resulting in a misspecified model.
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