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. In this article exclusivism about religious diversity denies any form of pluralism; it denies that all religions, or all major ones, are the same in some important respect. Yet other religious mystics perceive the Cosmos, that is, the totality of finite things (the body of the World Soul). 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 . Some forms of naive pluralism suppose that all religions will turn out to be complementary. Stenmark views it as most similar to identist pluralism (see 2e below). This diversity is increasing, even in communities that have previously been relatively homogeneous. (Heim 1995, 154-5, 161) This is an important qualifier, as various religious goals clearly presuppose contrary claims. For example, all non-Christians go to hell, or all non-Buddhists fail to gain Nirvana, or to make progress towards it. gender reassignment. 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. This is an inclusivist view about getting the cure, and about central religious truths. Characteristics of cultural diversity : Multiplicity of cultures Each worldview is the product of the individual development of a people. 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. (Abe 1985). al. 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. 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. (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. (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. Some experience this Being as if it were a god, but the most able gain a non-conceptual awareness of it in its ineffable glory. 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. 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. Instead, Hick downgrades the importance of true belief to religion. sexual orientation. 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. Protestant versions of exclusivism can be at least as strict as Augustines. 3, 3-4). 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. 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. Diversity and discrimination Unfortunately, it is often used with some mix of the above values in mind, leaving it unclear exactly which values are pertinent. (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. Thus, if central Christian teachings are true, then so is at least one central teaching of these two rival religions. It is only modern people who are blinded by the misunderstanding that science reveals all, who have forgotten it. An improvement upon naive pluralism acknowledges differences in all the aspects of religions, but separates peripheral from core differences. An informed Christian must concede that Jews and Muslims too believe this, and that they teach it as a central doctrine. 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 . This in some sense manifests as, acts as, and is not different from a host of Enjoyment Bodies (Sambhogakaya), each of which is a Buddha outside of space and time, a historical Buddha now escaped from samsara and dwelling in a Buddha-realm. An uninformed person, noting certain commonalities of religious belief and practice, may suppose that all religions are the same, namely, that there are no significant differences between religious traditions. Still other Catholic theologians have found these moves to be positive but not nearly different enough from the more pessimistic sort of exclusivism. A Dynamic Unity in Religious Pluralism: A Proposal from the Buddhist Point of View., Bogardus, Tomas. Such a person is outside of the tradition, yet obtains the cure taught by the tradition. (Dupuis 2000, 91-2). Religious Pluralism and the Some-Are-Equally-Right View., Yandell, Keith. Ethnic or national origins include, for Diversity also includes characteristics such as professional skills, working style, location, and life experiences. On this view, all the religions are right to the same degree, that is, all versions of monotheism (or perhaps, ethical monotheisms, or Abrahamic monotheisms). What about the religions practices are they all complementary? 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. Diversity is a wide array of people that come from different backgrounds, lifestyles, social experiences, races, and religions. Insofar as they in good conscience practice what is good in their religion, people in other religions receive Gods grace and are anonymous Christians, people who are being saved through Christ, though they do not realize it. Even God, the greatest concrete, actual being in this philosophy is, in the end, an all-encompassing unity of experience, and is to be understood as a process of Creative-Responsive love. (Griffin 2005b; Cooper 2006, ch. This view has not been widely accepted because the Process theology and philosophy on which it is based has not been widely accepted. They hope that each religion can, while remaining distinct, begin to construct global theologies, influenced by the truths and values of other religions. Such views are consistent with exclusivism in the sense that Roman Catholic Christianity is the one divinely provided and so most effective instrument of salvation, as well as the most true religion, and the true religion in the sense that any claim which contradicts it official teaching is false. Religious diversity - differences within and between religious groups in a society - has re-entered the sociology of religion in new and powerful ways. The Many Gods of Hick and Mavrodes,, Hick, John. All the major religions, then, are really oriented towards, and involve the experience of some reality regarded as ultimate (Creativity, God, or Cosmos). Thus, Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and Fulgentius of Ruspe (468-533) interpreted the slogan as implying that all non-Christians are damned, because they bear the guilt of original sin stemming from the sin of Adam, which has not been as it were washed away by baptism. 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. The unaffiliated represent close to 5%. Religious pluralism in some contexts means an informed, tolerant, and appreciative or sympathetic view of the various religions. (Krkkinen 2003, 197-204, 309-17). al. Or are those gods mere fictions? Religious diversity definition: The diversity of something is the fact that it contains many very different elements. Thus, famously, in a papal bull of 1302, called by its first words Unam Sanctam (that is, One Holy), Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294-1303) declared that outside the Roman Catholic church, there is neither salvation nor remission of sins, and it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the pope. 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. A plurality of different religions, major and minor, exist in the world, each believing different things. 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. Nationality includes, for example, being a British, Jamaican or Pakistani citizen. This led to both the questioning and the defense of various exclusivist traditional Christian claims. 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. Though not true, doctrines such as the Trinity or the Incarnation, he argues, may be interpreted to have mythological truth, that is, a tendency to influence people towards getting what Hick postulates is the cure offered by the religions, the ethical transformation described above. This encompasses the idea that physical reality, the terrestrial plane, is contained within and controlled by a more real intermediate plane (that is, the subtle, animic, or psychic plane) which is in turn contained and controlled by the celestial plane. According to Pew, it has a Christian majority (52% of the population), while the other half of the population is formed by two sizeable minorities: Hindus (close to 20%) and Muslims (about 15%). 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. How could a perfect being fail to be available to all people in all the religions? 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. 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 . Still, given that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, his teachings and practices should, and some day will supersede all previous ones. (Sharma 1990) This modern Hindu outlook has proven difficult to formulate in any clear way. People over age 40 are more likely to identify with a religion or engage in religious practices. The classic discussion of this is in the Lotus Sutra (before 255 C.E. A similar pluralism is advanced by Japanese Zen scholar Masao Abe (1915-2006). (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. pregnancy and maternity. Religious and spiritual understanding and beliefs about medicine and healthcare may support or conflict with evidence-based medicine. 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. The formation and development of religious diversity is a manifestation of the free expression of human thought, belief, and practice, as well as a historical premise and ideological condition for the gradual recognition and integration of modern religions into modern political values. (Heim 1995, 7). sex. Instead, it is the view that all religions are valid, meaning that they have some degree of (some kind of) value. Legenhausen, Hajj Muhammad [Gary Carl] Why I am not a Traditionalist. 2002. (Neuner and Dupuis 2001, 329), Since the Vatican II council (1962-5), many Catholic theologians have embraced what most philosophers will consider some form of inclusivism rather than a suitably qualified exclusivism, with a minority opting for some sort of pluralism. But others teach that the ultimate reality is a perfect self, a being capable of knowledge, will, and intentional action. State University of New York at Fredonia (Hick 2011), A less developed identist pluralism is explored by Peter Byrne. This type of diversity refers to the presence of multiple religions and spiritual beliefs (including lack thereof) in the workplace. (Dupuis 2001, 86-9), However, what about Jews, pagans, unbaptized babies, or people who never have a chance to hear the Christian message? This, he will not do. It is not Reasonable to Believe that Only One Religion is True., Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. On the Plurality of Religious Pluralisms., Long, Jeffery D. Anekanta Vedanta: Towards a Deep Hindu Religious Pluralism., Long, Jeffery D. Universalism in Hinduism., Mawson, T.J. Byrnes religious pluralism., Meeker, Kevin. There are three serious problems with verificationist pluralism. Hick doesnt argue for the salvific or cure-delivering equality of all religions. Beyond this is infinite, unlimited Being (also called Absolute Truth, the True Reality, the Absolute, God). First, we have the protected characteristics, such as race, age, gender and sexual orientation. In this article, religious pluralism refers to a theory about the diversity of religions. In some sense these three are one, however, the Truth Body manifests or acts as various Enjoyment Bodies, which in turn manifest or act as various Transformation Bodies. Most religions are theistic in the sense that they posit the existence of a personal Supreme Being (God) or set of personal deities, although within some belief systems normally labeled religionsfor example, Buddhismthere is no belief in such a being. 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. Religion diversity can simply refer to the development of religions that depend on the cultures. Religion and religion diversity are expressed by believers to cause strong opinions and emotions in all environments. In modern times, it tries to equalize other religions in the same ways it equalizes the apparently contrary claims and practices internal to it. (Dupuis 2000, 165-170) A key area of disagreement is whether or not these imply that a person may be saved by means of their participation in some other religion. (Smith 1992, 2003 ch. 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. All religions are equal? ), 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. In other contexts, religious pluralism is a normative principle requiring that peoples of all or most religions should be treated the same. 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. 3. Diversity, Divisions, Religion, Caste, Secularism, News, Theocratic states, Terrorism, Fundamentalism, Extremism, Congress, BJP, Communism. Given that any core pluralism inevitably downplays the other non-core elements of the religions, this approach has also been called reductive pluralism. (Legenhausen 2006), The most influential recent proponent of a version of core pluralism has been Huston Smith. Although many traditional Protestant Christians hold some form of exclusivism, others favor an inclusivism much like Rahners. It is far from clear that Heim is correct that this stance will be consistent with the claims of the home religion.