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).

“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.

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.

scholarly journals Javanese-Christian Church Belief and Inter-religious Dialogue

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 319
Author(s):  
Maria Ulfa Fauzi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Religious Dialogue ◽  
Truth Claims

This study attempts to elucidate both of Muslim and Christian understandings toward the idea of religious pluralism, with the case study of Javanese-Christian Church of Pogung and its relation to the surrounding community. It provides the discussion with some theological analyses on how people conceive the meaning of truth and, how this has led to the possibility and necessity of a dialogue; more specifically how their religious doctrines maintain their communities in dealing with other communities. Based on the qualitative approach, wherein the data gathered through in-depth interview and observation, the result of this study revealed that dialogue must be based on personal religious experiences and firm truth claims. Without personal religious experience, there is no way of grasping what the dialogue is all about. Dialogue must be based on the recognition of the possible truth in all religions; the ability to recognize this truth must be grounded in the hypothesis of common ground and goal for all religions. Dialogue must be based on openness to the possibility of genuine change or conversion.Keywords: Religious doctrine, Religious pluralism, Dialogue 

scholarly journals Religious Diversity: A Philosophical Defense of Religious Inclusivism

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-140
Author(s):  
Bernd Irlenborn
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
The Third ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
The Face ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Catholic Tradition

Faced by the challenge of religious plurality, most philosophers of religion view pluralism and exclusivism as the most accepted and fully developed positions. The third alternative, the model of inclusivism, held especially within the catholic tradition, has not received adequate attention in the debates in philosophy of religion, perhaps as it is based solely on theological grounds. In this essay I offer a philosophical defense of the position of religious inclusivism and give reasons why this position represents the most appropriate position in the face of conflicting religious truth claims. 

Watching Birds and People

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-176
Author(s):  
Mikael Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Good Working ◽  
Anthropological Field Work ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Way

This article explores ornithology as a hidden resource in anthropological field work. Relating experiences among the Penan forest nomads of Sarawak, Borneo, the author describes how his personal knowledge of bird life paved the way for good working relations, and even friendship, with the Penan. Representing two very different cultures simple communication between the scholar on duty and the Penan community was difficult indeed, but the birds provided a common ground that enabled the two parties to exchange experiences, knowledge and skills. In certain ways the author's fieldwork-based project relates to the Penan’s religious interpretation of birds, but the article is primarily concerned with the fact that a mutual understanding was created from this common ground, and that our thoughts on fieldwork preparations may be taken further by such experiences.

scholarly journals ‘That’s What Art Does’: Disclosing Religious and Ethical Possibilities Through Film

Sophia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikel Burley
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Ethics ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Form Of Life ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Dead Man

AbstractThe significance of narrative artworks as resources for, and possibly as instances of, philosophical thinking has increasingly been recognized over recent decades. Utilization of such resources in philosophy of religion has, however, been limited. Focusing on film in particular, this article develops an account of film’s importance for a ‘contemplative’ approach to philosophizing about religious ethics, an approach that prioritizes the elucidation of possibilities of sense over the evaluation of ‘truth claims’. Taking Dead Man Walking as a case in point, the article shows how this film facilitates an enhanced comprehension of specific concepts, most notably the concepts of faith, truth and love, as they feature within a characteristically Christian form of life.

How rational is rational theology? A reply to Mikael Stenmark

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-97
Author(s):  
VINCENT BRÜMMER
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Language Game ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Rational Theology ◽  
Truth Claims

In this response to Stenmark's critique of my views on rational theology, I concentrate on his distinction between the epistemic and the practical goals of religion and between descriptive and normative rational theology. With regard to the first distinction, I grant that truth claims play an essential role in religious belief and that it is indeed the task of philosophy of religion to decide on the meaning and rationality of such claims. I argue, however, that since such claims are internally related to the practical context of religious belief, their meaning and rationality cannot be determined apart from this context as is done in the kind of rational theology which Stenmark calls ‘scientific’. With regard to the second distinction, I reject Stenmark's view that philosophy of religion has a descriptive task with reference to religion, and hence also his claim that I have put forward a false description of ‘the religious language game’.

Religious Language after J. L. Austin

1972 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
James M. Smith ◽  
James WM. Mcclendon
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Recent Philosophy ◽  
Linguistic Action ◽  
The Way

John L. Austin believed that in the illocution he had discovered a fundamental element of our speech, the understanding of which would disclose the significance of all kinds of linguistic action: not only proposing marriage and finding guilt, but also stating, reporting, conjecturing, and all the rest of the things men can do linguistically.2 We claim that the illocution, the full-fledged speech-act, is central to religious utterances as well, and that it provides a perspicuity in understanding them not elsewhere provided in the work of recent philosophy of religion. In particular we hold that understanding religious talk through the illocution shows the way in which the representative and affective elements are connected to one another and to the utterance as a whole. There may, further, be features in such an analysis which can be extended to other forms of discourse than religious.

Religious Pluralism and the Divine: Another Look at John Hick's Neo-Kantian Proposal

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Eddy
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Realism

This study focuses upon the heart of John Hick's pluralistic philosophy of religion – his neo-Kantian response to the problem of conflicting inter-religious conceptions of the divine. Hick attempts to root his proposal in two streams of tradition: (1) the inter-religious awareness of the distinction between the divine in itself vs. the divine as humanly experienced, and (2) a Kantian epistemology. In fact, these attempts are problematic in that his hypothesis introduces a radical subjectivizing element at both junctures. In the end, I contend that Hick's neo-Kantian proposal undermines his decades-long effort to defend some form of religious realism.

scholarly journals UNITY THROUGH DIVERSITY: A CASE STUDY OF CHRISLAM IN LAGOS

Africa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 646-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marloes Janson
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACTThis article presents an ethnographic case study of Chrislam, a series of religious movements that fuse Christian and Muslim beliefs and practices, in its socio-cultural and political-economic setting in Nigeria's former capital Lagos. In contrast to conventional approaches that study religious movements in Africa as syncretic forms of ‘African Christianity’ or ‘African Islam’, I suggest that ‘syncretism’ is a misleading term to describe Chrislam. In fact, Chrislam provides a rationale for scrutinizing the very concept of syncretism and offers an alternative analytical case for understanding its mode of religious pluralism. To account for the religious plurality in Chrislam, I employ assemblage theory because it proposes novel ways of looking at Chrislam's religious mix that are in line with the way in which its worshippers perceive their religiosity. The underlying idea in Chrislam's assemblage of Christianity and Islam is that to be a Christian or Muslim alone is not enough to guarantee success in this world and the hereafter; therefore, Chrislam worshippers participate in Christian as well as Muslim practices, appropriating the perceived powers of both.

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