characteristics of religious diversity

Such an outlook is commonly perceived as meaningless, hopeless, and devoid of value. 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. Catholics are exhorted to patient, friendly dialogue with members of other religions. 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. 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. In the terms explained above, a religion claims to have a diagnosis (section 1 above). From African Americans to Russian Americans . 3, 3-4). They hope that each religion can, while remaining distinct, begin to construct global theologies, influenced by the truths and values of other religions. It is not Reasonable to Believe that Only One Religion is True., Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. His theory is at least superficially clear, and is rooted in his own spiritual journey. 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. Physical appearance becomes a way of allowing particular groups of people to feel that they are . More Empathy While this is compatible with some religion being the best in some other respect(s), the theorists using this label have in mind that many religions are equal regarding the central value(s) of religion. 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. Carefully worked out theories of religious pluralism often sound all-inclusive. (Hick 2004, ch. But these lesser ways should and eventually will give way to Christianity, the truest religion, intended for all humankind. For example, people have empirically disconfirmed claims that Jesus will visibly return to rule the earth from Jerusalem in 1974, or that magical ghost shirts will protect the wearer from bullets, or that saying a certain mantra three times will protect one from highway robbers. Later on, Hick firmly settled on the view that this Real should be thought of as ineffable. 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. Still, given that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, his teachings and practices should, and some day will supersede all previous ones. Has Normative Religious Pluralism a Rationale?. 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. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl]. (Heim 1995, 154-5, 161) This is an important qualifier, as various religious goals clearly presuppose contrary claims. Rather, he only argues for the equality of what he calls post-axial religions major religious traditions which have arisen since around 800 B.C.E. 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. This is because they cannot be empirically verified, that is, their truth or falsity is not known by way of observational evidence. Diversity in religion is one of the world's strengths, not one of its weaknesses. An improvement upon naive pluralism acknowledges differences in all the aspects of religions, but separates peripheral from core differences. Heim strenuously objects to pluralist theories that they impose uniformity on the various religions. Characteristics of cultural diversity : Multiplicity of cultures Each worldview is the product of the individual development of a people. In contrast, any non-pluralist theory of religious diversity is associated with many arguably bad qualities. In the first case, a person who is killed in an accident on her way to be baptized would nonetheless be in the church. Yet other religious mystics perceive the Cosmos, that is, the totality of finite things (the body of the World Soul). If the core is true teachings, theyll all be true (to some degree). (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. It can build strength of character, pride, and confidence. For example, all non-Christians go to hell, or all non-Buddhists fail to gain Nirvana, or to make progress towards it. 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. This means making sure each employee is treated equally. Another view which is taken by Bible-oriented evangelical Protestants allows the possibility of non-Christians receiving saving grace, but is firmly agnostic as to whether this actually occurs, and if it does, how often, because of the paucity of relevant biblical statements. Early bishop Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35-107) writes that if any follow a schismatic [that is, the founder of a religious group outside of the bishop-ruled catholic mainstream] they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Letter of Ignatius to the Philadelphians 3:3) Leading catholic theologian Origen of Alexandria (c. 186-255) wrote: outside the Church no one is saved. (Dupuis 2001, 86-7) Yet Origen also held, at least tentatively, that eventually all rational beings will be saved. A plurality of different religions, major and minor, exist in the world, each believing different things. (Dupuis 2000, 161-5) Some Catholic theologians have seen the seeds or even the basic elements of inclusivism in these statements, while others view them as within the orbit of a suitably articulated exclusivism. It is impossible that all three experiences are veridical. Diversity recognises that everyone is different in a . Religion Diversity in the Workplace In today's workplace, there are many rules and regulations to ensure the wellbeing of the employee. In contrast, exclusivist approaches say that only one religion is uniquely valuable. Exclusivism, Inclusivism, Pluralism: The Tripolar Typology Clarified and Reaffirmed., Sharma, Arvind. Several caveats must be issued when observing religions across the world prior to describing the demographic characteristics of large religious groupings and highlighting their internal diversity. (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. This seems incompatible with Heims agnosticism about which, if any, of the diagnosed problems is the fundamental one. Characteristically Religious Feelings Awe, a sense of mystery, a sense of guilt, and adoration are "religious feelings" which tend to be aroused in religious believers when they come in the presence of sacred objects, in sacred places, and during the practice of sacred rituals. 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. Following these same steps, our second . Appropriating Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian language, Smith says that this spirit is the Atman that is Brahman, the Buddha-nature that appears when our finite selves get out of its way, my istigkeit (is-ness) whichwe see is Gods is-ness. (Smith 2003 ch. (OConnor 1999) This exclusivism is compatible with both exclusivism and inclusivism in this article. 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. Roughly, pluralistic approaches to religious diversity say that, within bounds, one religion is as good as any other. (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. 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. marriage and civil partnership. 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. This perennial philosophy appeals to many present-day people, particularly those who, like Smith, have moved from a childhood religious faith, in his case, Christianity, to a more naturalistic and, hence, atheistic outlook. Nor can he be fruitful and multiply while living as a celibate Buddhist monk. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl] Why I am not a Traditionalist. 2002. 4. (Smith 2003, 2012). Attending a culturally diverse institute of education will prepare students for their future in a workplace. Dale Tuggy 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 entry examines the origins and differing patterns of development of the world's major religious traditions, as well as the varying patterns of interaction between these religions and the social, political, and economic frameworks with which they coexist. However, he thought that it is arbitrary and indefensible to hold that only ones own experiences or the experiences of those in ones group are veridical, while those of people in other religions are not. Religion and belief includes: Atheists Agnostics Bah' Buddhists Christians. This view has not been widely accepted because the Process theology and philosophy on which it is based has not been widely accepted. (Krkkinen 2003, 197-204, 309-17). OConnor, Timothy. (1995, 2004) All the major religions are equal in that they (1) refer to and facilitate cognitive contact with a single, transcendent reality, (2) each offers a similarly moral- and eternal-oriented cure, and (3) each includes revisable and incomplete accounts of this transcendent reality. (Hick 1997). The various planes are not distinct from it, and it is the ultimate object of all desire, and the deepest reality within each human self. Colour includes, for example, being black or white. 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. (Legenhausen 2002). 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. (McDermott and Netland 2014) Other Protestants choose forms of inclusivism similar to Rahners (see 4b below). Religious Pluralism., Schmidt-Leukel, Perry. Thus, Christian exclusivists usually allow that those who die as babies, the severely mentally handicapped, or friends of God who lived before Christian times may avoid hell and attain heaven despite their not being fully-fledged, believing and practicing Christians. 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. A common form of negative pluralism may be called verificationist pluralism. This is the view that all religious claims are meaningless, and as a result are incapable of rational evaluation. The latter two classes of beings, but not the first, may be described as personal.. 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. (Hick 1982 ch. The context of this statement was not a discussion of the fate of non-Christians, but rather a political struggle between the pope and the king of France. For example, millennials, GenZers and GenXers can coexist in the same workplace. 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. A Muslims Proposal: Non-Reductive Religious Pluralism. 2006. 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. Beginning in the late twentieth century, however, some Jewish thinkers have argued for pluralism along the lines of various Christian authors, revising traditional Jewish theology. State University of New York at Fredonia Another, without saying that people may be saved through membership in them, affirms various positive values in other religions, including true teachings, which serve as divinely ordained preparations for reception the gospel. These are the undisputed facts of religious diversity. (Long 2005), Building on the speculative metaphysics of Alfred North Whiteheads (18611947) Process and Reality (1929), and work by his student Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000), theologians John Cobb and David Ray Griffin have advocated what the latter calls deep, differential, and complementary pluralism what is here described as ultimist. (Cooper 2006, ch. However, he maintained that people in the religions interact with it indirectly, by way of various personae and impersonae, personal and impersonal appearances or phenomena of the Real. Religious diversity is the coexistence of more than one religion in the same setting. This baptism of desire was officially affirmed by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1547. Religion is a system of beliefs and moral norms that serve as spiritual guide for the human being; the mythology that composes them and their main characteristics vary between culture and culture. 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. 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. This account is narrower than pluralism is usually thought to be, but it is arguably a version of it. Morales, Frank [Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya]. Some forms of naive pluralism suppose that all religions will turn out to be complementary. | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples This position cannot be self-consistently maintained. Wide distances, poor communication and transportation, bad weather, and the clerical shortage dictated religious variety from town to town and from region to region. A similar pluralism is advanced by Japanese Zen scholar Masao Abe (1915-2006). The exclusivist-inclusivist-pluralist trichotomy has become standard since the 1980s. In other contexts, religious pluralism is a normative principle requiring that peoples of all or most religions should be treated the same. one? 1919) In his view, the common core of religions is a tiered worldview. Such an outlook, often called the perennial philosophy or traditionalism, owes much to nineteenth and twentieth century occult literature, and to neo-Platonism and its early modern revivals. same? Nevertheless, the homeownership rate is on the rise among Asian Americans, increasing from 53% in 2000 to 59% in 2019. 1933) and English convert to Islam, Martin Lings (1909-2005) who was a biographer of Muhammad. If, for example, in his view Allah, Vishnu, and Yahweh are all real and distinct, is Hick thereby committed to polytheism? Still other Catholic theologians have found these moves to be positive but not nearly different enough from the more pessimistic sort of exclusivism. Local variations in Protestant practices and ethnic differences among the white settlers did foster a religious diversity. This diversity is increasing, even in communities that have previously been relatively homogeneous. As explained above (section 3c) a major impetus for this has been statements issued by the latest official council (Vatican II, 1962-5). While there have been Buddhist teachers and movements who have been exclusivists, in general Buddhism has been inclusivist. Such would be the work of a religiously embedded and committed theology of religious diversity, not of a general philosophy of religious diversity. The first part of the article deals with the European and, specifically, Croatian sociopolitical and cultural framework of inclusive pedagogy and presents its basic postulates. The tradition now called Hinduism is and always has been very internally diverse. These qualities include but are not limited to: being humble, reasonable, kind, broad-minded, open-minded, informed, cosmopolitan, modern, properly appreciative of difference, non-bigoted, tolerant, being opposed to proselytizing (attempts to convince those outside the religion to convert to it), anti-colonialist, and anti-imperialist. There are other major ones which remain unseen. the coexistence of various perspectives (political, religious), backgrounds (racial/ethnic, sexual orientation, nationality) gender) variety. (For others see Hick 2004, Introduction.). (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. Finally, Cobb and Griffin emphasize that this approach does not endorse any unreasonable form of relativism and, as such, allows one to remain distinctively Christian or Buddhist and so forth. al. However, his theory seems to depend crucially on the existence of many human problems, each of which may be solved by participation in some religion or other. This patient's religious beliefs have led him to pursue mindfulness and meditation as ways of . Many have objected that Hicks pluralism is not merely a theory about religions, but is itself a competitor in the field, offering a diagnosis and cure which disagrees with those of the world religions. (Hick 1995, ch. pregnancy and maternity. Hinduism., de Cea, Abraham Vlez. Or are those gods mere fictions? It is a mistake, he now holds, to suppose that the personae (that is, Vishnu, Yahweh, Allah, and so on) are angel-like selves. 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. Cobb and Griffin assume that there is no supernatural intervention (any miraculous interruption of the ordinary course of nature) by God or other beings. The underlying metaphysics here is that of process philosophy, in which events are the basic or fundamental units of reality. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl]. Starting as a traditional, non-pluralistic Christian, Hick attended religious meetings and studied with people of other religions. 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. While there are other sorts of negative naive pluralism, we shall concentrate on positive kinds here, as most of the scholarly literature focuses on those. Water baptism, from the beginning, had been the initiation rite into Christianity, but it was still unclear what church membership strictly required. sex. This study examines the spatial characteristics of the development of the global religious diversity index . (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. It is hard to see, then, how his theory enables one to be, as Hick claimed to be, a pluralistic Christian, given that one has replaced the diagnosis and cure of Christianity with those of Hicks pluralism. 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. Griffin and Cobb seem to attribute the deepest insight to those who think the ultimate reality is an impersonal, indescribable non-thing. 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. : a critical examination of some formulations of the Neo-Hindu position., Smith, Huston. What values are at issue? (Sharma 1990) This modern Hindu outlook has proven difficult to formulate in any clear way. 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.

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