Abstract
This chapter is in two parts. The first part explores why it has become convenient for critics of pluralist theologies of religions to accuse its advocates of postmodern relativism. I explain why it is a wilful misplaced judgement to confuse pluralism with relativism, and that the real fear behind the dismissal of pluralism is the anticipated loss of Christian absolutism with both its implied uniqueness in a world of religious diversity and its perceived need as a marker of Christian identity. The second part of this chapter illustrates how and why pluralist theology best resolves the tangle of epistemological and social issues situated at the heart of practical interreligious encounter and relations. I choose three contexts of interreligious relations to illustrate this proposition: (1) public square; (2) interreligious dialogue; and (3) discussions of religious experience. Each context represents a ‘pointer to pluralism’ and provides a lived practical grounding for the pluralist theological thinking outlined in Part One.
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Notes
- 1.
John Hick, ‘Jews, Christians, Muslims: Do We All Worship the Same God?’, Disputed Questions in Theology and the Philosophy of Religion (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993), 161.
- 2.
Peter C. Phan, The Joy of Religious Pluralism: A Personal Journey (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2017), 175–184, 210–223.
- 3.
Phan, Joy of Religious Pluralism, 171.
- 4.
Hendrik Kraemer, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (London: The Edinburgh House Press, 1938), 106.
- 5.
Robert Wilken, The Myth of Christian Beginnings (London: SCM Press, 1971), 73.
- 6.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, ‘The Future of Christianity: A Meditation on the Church and Contemporary Pluralism in the Post Modern Era’, https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cam1.org.au%2Feic%2Fimages%2Fstories%2Fdocuments%2FTHEFUTUREOFCHRISTIANITY.doc, 4.
- 7.
Kasper, ‘The Future of Christianity’, 6.
- 8.
Kasper, ‘The Future of Christianity’, 6.
- 9.
Kasper, ‘The Future of Christianity’, 11.
- 10.
Kasper, ‘The Future of Christianity’, 10. Kasper also relies on the authority of the Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtila’s (later Pope John-Paul II) endorsement of the Thomist principle voiced at the time of the Second Vatican Council.
- 11.
(Summa Theologica, II/II, Q. 1, art. 2).
- 12.
John Hick, ‘A Response to Cardinal Ratzinger’, Chap. 8, in Dialogues in the Philosophy of Religion (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), 158–9.
- 13.
Stanley Samartha, Between Two Cultures: Ecumenical Ministry in a Pluralist World (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1996), 190.
- 14.
Nigel Sustins, ‘City’, in World Faiths Encounter, Number 8, July 1994.
- 15.
Richard Rorty, ‘Religion as a Conversation-stopper’, Philosophy and Social Hope (London: Penguin Books, 1999), 168–74.
- 16.
Hans Küng, Tracing the Way: Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions (London: Continuum,2002), 268. This is one of Küng’s lesser known books, written for use in a TV series.
- 17.
Küng, Tracing, 15.
- 18.
John Hick, ‘Is There a Global Ethic?’, Who Or What Is God? And Other Investigations (London: SCM Press, 2008), 149–160.
- 19.
Hick, Disputed Questions, 162.
- 20.
John Hick, ‘Is Christianity the only true religion, or one among others?’ Talk given to a Theological Society in Norwich, England, 2001. http://www.johnhick.org.uk/jsite/index.php/articles-by-john-hick/16-is-christianity-the-only-true-religion-or-one-among-others, accessed 22/05, 2022).
- 21.
E.g., Leonard Swidler, ‘From the Age of Monologue to the Age of Global Dialogue’, in Alan Race and Ingrid Shafer, eds., Religions in Dialogue: From Theocracy to Democracy (Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate Publishing, 2002), Chap. 1.
- 22.
John Hick, God Has Many Names (Macmillan Press, 1980), 80–1.
- 23.
Ninian Smart, World Religions: A Dialogue (London: SCM Press, 1960).
- 24.
Smart, World Religions, 15.
- 25.
Smart, World Religions, 139.
- 26.
Rita M. Gross and Rosemary Radford Ruether, Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet: A Buddhist-Christian Conversation (New York and London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001), 151.
- 27.
- 28.
There are many examples, including: Paul Knitter and Roger Haight: Jesus & Buddha: Friends in Conversation (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2015); Rose Drew, Buddhist and Christian? An Exploration of Dual Belonging (London and New York, 2011); Perry Schmidt-Leukel, ed., Buddhism and Christianity in Dialogue: The Gerald Weisfeld Lectures 2004 (London: SCM Press, 2005).
- 29.
Anantanand Rambachan, ‘Do We Have A Religious Need For Each Other?’, in Harold Kasimow and Alan Race, eds., Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue: Religious Thinkers Engage With Recent Papal Initiatives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 207.
- 30.
Cited by Rambachan, Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue, 211.
- 31.
Hick, God Has Many Names, 89.
- 32.
David Hay, Religious Experience Today: Studying the Facts (London: Mowbray), 64. My italics.
- 33.
Hick refers to this experience also in his autobiography, John Hick: An Autobiography (Oxford: Oneworld, 2002), 223. He records that “Even to have tasted this fleetingly has been to me very significant.”
- 34.
Marianne Rankin, ‘An Introduction to Religious Experience’, Religious Experience Research Centre, Third Series Occasional Paper, March 2005, 39. My italics. https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/474/1/RERC3-002-1.pdf.
- 35.
Foremost among the best of robust statements of Christian pluralist theology is the magisterial work of Perry Schmidt-Leukel, God Beyond Boundaries: a Christian and Pluralist Theology of Religions (ET Münster and New York: Waxmann, 2017). The original German version was published in 2005.
- 36.
- 37.
- 38.
I am grateful to Professor Perry Schmidt-Leukel for giving feedback and suggesting improvements on an earlier version of this chapter.
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Race, A. (2023). Pointers to Pluralism Not Relativism. In: Sugirtharajah, S. (eds) John Hick's Religious Pluralism in Global Perspective. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11008-5_4
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