Historicizing the Elephant in the Room

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell T. McCutcheon
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Indian Text

This chapter retraces the genealogy of the well-known parable of the “blind men and the elephants,” which is often cited by scholars who want to champion religious pluralism or inclusivism. While this parable is allegedly based on an ancient Indian text, this chapter shows persuasively that it is in fact a relatively modern invention used to promote a particular brand of multiculturalism and rather uncritical scholarship. As an alternative, the chapter suggests that a critical study of religions would follow Bruce Lincoln’s approach by interrogating such truth claims and situating them in their specific historical and political contexts.

scholarly journals THE RECOGNITION OF EXISTENCE AND BIBLICAL TRUTH IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE QUR'AN (Critical Study of the Development of Liberal Islamic Thought in Indonesia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-430
Author(s):  
Asep Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Is Research ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
Library Studies ◽  
Existing Data

This article seeks to highlight and provide answers to the controversial opinions that have recently been frequently campaigned by some liberal Muslim figures that the Qur'an recognizes the existence and truth of previous scriptures such as the Bible. They use several verses in the Qur'an, 5:44, 46-47 and 66, to justify the above opinions supported by partial interpretation experts under their understanding and purpose. In this study, the author used the library research method, which is research-based on library studies. The approach used is descriptive-analytical, which describes existing data sources, then analyzed and interpreted using available data sources. The opinion of liberal Islamic thinkers that it is enough for the Jews to use the Torah in carrying out religious law, and the Christians that they simply follow the rules in the Bible, this is because their methodology in understanding the verse is wrong. They did not explain at all the abuses committed by Jews and Christians. Including their defiance of Allah's command and about the guidance of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad with his perfect and universal sharia, which they are obliged to follow and obey, which is the information contained in their holy book. In understanding the verses of the Qur'an, they do not use methodological steps that can be accounted for in the discipline of interpretation. Contextual schools are emphasized for several texts that are alleged to be anti-religious pluralism. While on the other hand, literal schools are applied to verses that support the notion of religious pluralism.   Artikel ini berupaya untuk mengetengahkan dan memberikan jawaban atas pendapat kontroversial yang belakangan ini sering dikampanyekan oleh beberapa tokoh muslim liberal bahwa al-Qur’an mengakui eksistensi dan kebenaran kitab suci sebelumnya seperti Bibel. Mereka menggunakan beberapa ayat dalam QS. Al-Ma’idah [5]: 44, 46-47, dan ayat ke-66 untuk menjustifikasi pendapat di atas didukung dengan menukil pendapat dari para ahli tafsir secara parsial sesuai dengan paham dan tujuan mereka. Pada penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan metode library research, yakni penelitian yang didasarkan pada studi pustaka. Adapun pendekatan yang digunakan adalah deskriptif-analitis, yaitu mendeskripsikan sumber data yang ada, kemudian dianalisis dan diinterpretasikan dengan menggunakan sumber data yang tersedia. Pendapat para pemikir Islam liberal bahwa kaum Yahudi cukup berhukum dengan Taurat begitu pula kaum Nasrani, yang katanya cukup berhukum dengan Injil atau Bibel, dikarenakan mereka cacat secara metodologis dalam memahami ayat tersebut. Mereka sama sekali tidak menerangkan tentang penyelewengan yang dilakukan orang-orang Yahudi dan Nasrani. Termasuk tentang pembangkangan mereka terhadap perintah Allah dan tentang petunjuk akan datangnya Nabi Muhammad saw. dengan syariatnya yang sempurna dan universal yang wajib diikuti dan ditaati oleh mereka, yang mana informasi tersebut terdapat di dalam kitab mereka. Dalam memahami ayat-ayat al-Quran, mereka tidak menggunakan ukuran metodologis yang dapat dipertanggungjawabkan secara disiplin ilmu tafsir. Mazhab kontekstual ditekankan untuk sejumlah teks yang diduga anti kemajemukan beragama. Sementara di sisi lain, mazhab literal diterapkan untuk ayat-ayat yang mendukung paham pluralism agama.

scholarly journals Redefining Religious Truth as a Challenge for Philosophy of Religion

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 139-159
Author(s):  
Peter Jonkers
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
The Way

One of the most important features of contemporary Western societies is the rise of (religious) pluralism. Whereas (philosophical) theism used to serve as a common ground to discuss the truth-claims of religion, this approach seems to have lost much of its plausibility. What I want to argue in this article is that philosophy of religion as a critical intellectual activity still cannot do without the notion of religious truth, but also that it needs to redefine this truth in an existential way, i.e. by interpreting religions as concrete ways of life. In this paper I develop this idea of religious truth by interpreting religions as traditions of wisdom, being a kind of truth that is able to orientate humans’ lives without being swayed by the issues of the day. In order to substantiate my interpretation I discuss three fundamental aspects of wisdom, viz. the fact that it rests on a broadened idea of reason, the way in which it discovers the universal in the particular, and the insight that all life-orientations are based on a principle that is subjectively adequate, but objectively inadequate (Kant).

scholarly journals Pluralisme Agama dalam Al-Qur’an Telaah atas Penafsiran Farid Esack

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fatih
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Absolute Truth ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The Right ◽  
Supreme Being

One of the issues that received considerable and dominant attention was the issue of diversity or religious plurality. This issue is a phenomenon that exists in the midst of the diversity of claims of absolute truth (Absolute Truth Claims) between religions that are contradicting one another. Each religion claims to be the truest and all others are heretical. This claim then gave birth to the belief commonly called the "Doctrine of Salvation" that salvation or heaven is the right of followers of certain religions, while adherents of other religions will be harmed and go to hell. In fact, this kind of belief also applies to adherents between sects or alians in the same religion. As is the case between Protestants and Catholics in Christianity, between Mahayana and Hinayana or Theravada in Buddhism, and also between various Islamic groups. This reality has brought pluralism to an increasingly broad and complex discourse. The Koran's recognition of religious pluralism is clear not only from the perspective of accepting other people as a legitimate religious community, but also from the acceptance of their spiritual life and the opportunity for a way of salvation for them. According to Esack, the preservation of the sanctity of these places of worship is not solely intended for the sake of maintaining the integrity of the multi-religious society, but also because God, who is the supreme being for these religions, and who is seen to be above differences in his outward expression, is worshiped in the place. -that place.

“All Faiths Are Paths”

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayon Maharaj
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Spiritual Experience ◽  
Common Goal ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Sophisticated Model ◽  
Truth Claims

This chapter reconstructs from Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings a unique and philosophically sophisticated model of religious pluralism. For Sri Ramakrishna, God is infinite, so there are correspondingly infinite ways of approaching and realizing God. Therefore, all religions and spiritual philosophies—both theistic and nontheistic—are salvifically effective paths to one common goal: God-realization, or the direct spiritual experience of God in any of His innumerable aspects or forms. Maharaj then examines Sri Ramakrishna’s response to the thorny problem of conflicting religious truth-claims. Sri Ramakrishna reconciles religious claims about the nature of the ultimate reality by claiming that every religion captures a uniquely real aspect of the impersonal-personal Infinite Reality. Regarding other types of religious truth-claims, Sri Ramakrishna maintains that while every religion errs on some points of doctrine, these errors do not substantially diminish the salvific efficacy of religions. Finally, Maharaj defends Sri Ramakrishna’s doctrine of religious pluralism against numerous objections.

A Primordial e pluribus unum? Exegeses on Q. 2:213 and Contemporary Muslim Discourses on Religious Pluralism*

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Sajjad H. Rizvi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The One

Students of natural theology have for centuries debated the religious progress of humankind. In the idyll of the Garden of Eden and in our earliest generations, they ask, did we believe in God? Or even gods? Has humankind evolved from pagan precursors to rational monotheism? Or did primordial monotheism lapse into paganism thus requiring the divine light of revelation to guide humanity back to the one true God? This paper focuses on three contemporary Muslim perspectives on religious pluralism that draw upon a key verse from Sūrat al-Baqara, which begins with the declaration that ‘Humankind was a single nation’ (or ‘is a single nation’, the tense seems rather significant) to tease out a central ethical question of religious pluralism and the moral relativism that, for some, it entails. How can all religions claim to be true when their truth claims are so incommensurable? Does the Qur'an articulate an exclusivist or universalist discourse (or perhaps more intriguingly both simultaneously) with respect to other faiths?

Melkites, Mutakallim?n and al-Ma’m?n: Depicting the Religious Other in Medieval Arabic Dialogues

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bertaina
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Dialogical Approach ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Religious Others ◽  
Religious Other ◽  
Muslim Scholars ◽  
Religious Worldviews

The article describes a literary dialogue said to have occurred in 829/214 between the Arab Melkite Christian bishop Theodore Ab? Qurra, several Muslim scholars, and the caliph al-Ma’m?n. The text contains two types of dialogue: Ab? Qurra versus the Muslim scholars and Ab? Qurra with al-Ma’m?n. The former is distinguished by its antagonism on both sides, while the latter is noted for its polite discourse. The evidence indicates that the Muslim caliph al-Ma’m?n held an admired place in the Melkite Christian community’s memory. The author’s analysis concludes that the dialogue presupposes Christian Arab identity was integrated into the dominant Islamic culture in a symbiotic relationship that recognized the reality of religious pluralism and disparate truth claims. The author also argues that the text placed value on the dialogical approach as a process of identity formation by constructing boundaries with religious others while simultaneously internalizing these other religious worldviews.

scholarly journals PLURALISME AGAMA DI INDONESIA (Tantangan dan Peluang Bagi Keutuhan Bangsa)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Julita Lestari S.Ag
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Truth Claim ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The One ◽  
Two Sides

<p align="center">Abstrak</p><p>Keberagaman agama di satu sisi menjadikan perbedaan yang cenderung melahirkan perpecahan di kalangan umat beragama. Di sisi lain, keberagaman agama merupakan pemersatu umat karena saling menghargai perbedaan yang ada. Pluralisme yang melahirkan dua sisi ini menjadikan penting untuk dikaji. Indonesia merupakan salah satu negara yang menganut tidak hanya satu agama namun terdiri bermacam-macam agama, yaitu Islam, Kristen, Budha, Kong Hu chu, Hindudan agama-agama lainnya. Kepluralismean agama di Indonesia ini memiliki tantangan dan peluang tersendiri bagi keutuhan bangsa.  Tantangan terbesar Indonesia sebagai negara pluralisme adalah cenderung menimbulkan konflik. Dikarenakan setiap agama melakukan <em>truth claim</em> terhadap agamanya sendiri dan agama lain dianggap salah. Adapun peluang pluralisme agama di Indonesia bagi keutuhan bangsa yaitu lahirnya sikap toleran sesama umat karena mampu menghargai keragaman beragama.</p><p align="center">Abstract</p><p>Religious diversity on the one hand makes a difference that tends to give birth to divisions among religious communities. On the other hand, religious diversity is a unifying people because they respect each other's differences. Pluralism which gives birth to two sides makes it important to study. Indonesia is one country that adheres to not only one religion but consists of various religions, namely Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hindudan and other religions. Religious pluralism in Indonesia has its own challenges and opportunities for national integrity. Indonesia's biggest challenge as a state of pluralism is that it tends to cause conflict. Because every religion makes truth claims against its own religion and other religions are considered wrong. The opportunity for religious pluralism in Indonesia for the integrity of the nation is the birth of a tolerant attitude among people because it is able to appreciate religious diversity.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Pluralism and Religious Harmony in Religious Elites Perspectives in Malang City

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Umi Sumbulah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological

This study aims to understand the religious elite view of pluralism and religious harmony in  Malang. The study was focused on the meaning of pluralism and religious harmony, efforts  and things that support and hinder the realization of religious harmony. Empirical research  data with qualitative-phenomenological approach was collected through interviews and documentation. The results show: first, the meaning of religious pluralism for the religious elites is very varied, which is the same as tolerance, mutual respect, the goal of all religions are the same, and recognize the fact that there are many religions in this world. Second, religious<br />harmony have meaning as a condition where there is no oppression and domination of one religion over other religions, awakening a deep awareness of diversity, respect for human rights, and the willingness to spread kindness and love for fellow human beings. Third, religious harmony can be achieved through internal efforts to strengthen the faith of each and build awareness to develop a positive attitude towards other religions. In external efforts to create harmony done through emancipatory dialogue and cooperation to resolve humanitarian issues. Fourth, positive attitude that supports the creation of harmony of religions is the willingness and awareness to understand each other and share experiences. Egoism, truth claims, fanaticism, and exclusivism is a negative attitude and expression recognized by the religious elite can interfere with the establishment of inter-religious harmony.<br /><br />

Humble Confessionalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Holley
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Viable Option ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Rule Out

Abstract: Much of the appeal of religious pluralism for those who take religious truth claims seriously arises from the sense that confessionalist alternatives to pluralism that affirm the truth of one particular religion are unacceptable. Pluralists try to foster this sense by portraying confessionalist views as implausible for one who is fully informed about the facts of religious diversity. However, when pluralists attempt to rule out confessionalism, they tend to characterize it in ways that overlook the possibility of what I call humble confessionalism. When humble forms of confessionalism are considered, representations of pluralism as the only viable option become less persuasive.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document