They're linked on the sidebar, too (see the "Video Podcasts" section):
1. What is Religious Pluralism?
2. Did You Catch My Mistake?
3. Some Critiques of Religious Pluralism (1)
4. Some Critiques of Religious Pluralism (2)
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Marathon
11 years ago
1 comment:
Thank you, Kevin, for this short but enlightening course in pluralism. I have so many thoughts that I am not sure where to begin, ha-ha. You brought up many fascinating points and suggested several books for further reading. Thank you for these recommendations; I will definitely follow up on them, particularly the Kate McCarthy essay.
Let's see ... I was surprised at my reaction to the statement provided by Heim, paraphrased as "if a person plugs every religion into one paradigm -- even if that paradigm is well-intentioned and filled with love -- they are in fact advocating inclusivity as they are denying the differences between religions that might not fit into their paradigm."
My face flushed upon hearing this statement. I am guilty of this. I know Bahá'ís who converted from every religious tradition imaginable, and this has led me to believe all the differences can be reconciled. But as you say, there are fine points that do not fit so neatly into my "unity paradigm."
Although ... one of my Bahá'í friends from a Zen Buddhist background said he has never seen a conflict between faiths and, in fact, has always believed that people of every religion are being impelled toward the same Reality. As you say, there is no anthropomorphic characteriszation of enlightenment in Zen Buddhism, and yet this man has always felt oneness with other religionists...? I should ask him more about this. One of my Korean students is also Buddhist and has a profoundly loving acceptance for other religious traditions "as long as they do no harm."
One of my pseudo-brothers (I collect them, ha) was Hindu before conversion. He also found the idea of convergent pluralism easy to embrace, as he was raised with this idea in his home. I must say, however, that in my limited experience with Hinduism, I have observed that there are quite literally thousands of ways to be Hindu -- there appears to be no universal agreement among practitioners -- and I have a Brahmin friend who considers himself a superior creation in both faith, appearance and intellect, ha-ha. (He likes himself very much.) Perhaps it is because Hinduism is so ancient that there are so many divergent schools of thought?
At any rate, what matters is that I sometimes ignore a person's cry of "I do not believe in a god, I believe in nothingness and extinguishing self," or "there is no god, only truth" and tell myself, "Whether they know it or not, they are speaking of the Unknowable Essence, it's all just semantics." Boy, is THAT arrogant! But then again, maybe it is true? Maybe we are all drawing ever-closer to God but calling Him "the extinguished self," "the Truth," Etc., and maybe it really IS semantics. We all live with our biases and our unique perspectives, thus I cannot help feeling that all paths lead to God, even when that Reality is called something like Nibbana.
I would like to explore Stephen Kaplan's idea more. The idea of a holographic pluralism where every perspective upon the whole appears the same and a portion reflects the whole like a fractal makes sense. Isn't it odd to call that divergent pluralism, however? I didn't understand how that is divergent. To me, it is a statement of unity and convergence. I must be missing something...? If each slice of the whole reflects the whole, isn't that convergent? I also liked the model-less pluralism where you dialogue for the sake of dialogue. This attitude promotes unity, I think, as no one is confined by assigning qualities or names to things.
Finally, I agree with you on your final point: Genuine respect means learning the religious traditions of others. Oh, and I loved your final thought from Hicks, How can you have multiple ultimates? EXACTLY. The principal of oneness and unity is so powerful, and it seems very odd indeed to suggest that each religion is serving a different God and a different Reality. That is an odd contradiction for a Monotheist to suggest! I am always amused when I hear someone of an Abrahamic religion say, "Who is YOUR God?" This question always sounds like the diamond-tipped arm of a record player being scratched against a 45: "You mean there is more than one God?" This questions leaves them quite flustered.
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