Pluralism out of the Sources of Judaism

Jewish Theology and World Religions ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781906764098.003.0004 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 87-122

Author(s):

Raphael Jospe

Keyword(s):

Religious Pluralism ◽

Moral Relativism ◽

Multiple Perspectives ◽

Epistemic Relativism ◽

Ample Evidence ◽

Epistemological Relativism

This chapter argues for the legitimacy of Jewish religious pluralism, citing precedents and conceptions that arise indigenously ‘out of sources of Judaism’. As for the Christian challenge of equating pluralism with relativism, it constructs a paradigm of religious pluralism that avoids moral relativism, while at the same time avoiding the kind of extreme epistemological relativism of radical deconstructionism. As for Jewish precedents, there is ample evidence for both internal and external pluralism in the sources. In his comments on Genesis 33:20 and Exodus 6:9, Rashi cites this verse to justify diverse, internal pluralistic interpretations. Rabbi Yishma'el interpreted this verse as alluding to both internal and external pluralism. Such pluralism, even if it entails a degree of moderate epistemic relativism, does not imply a strong relativistic conception of multiple truths, but of multiple perspectives on the truth, or what the rabbis called the ‘seventy facets of the Torah’.

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Pluralism Out Of The Sources Of Judaism: Religious Pluralism Without Relativism

Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations ◽

10.6017/scjr.v2i2.1425 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Raphael Jospe

Keyword(s):

Religious Pluralism ◽

Moral Relativism ◽

Jewish Tradition ◽

Wide Range ◽

Jewish Scholar ◽

Epistemological Relativism ◽

Ways Of Life

Jewish theology is compatible with religious pluralism, based on the paradigm of the Jewish obligation to live in accordance with the commandments of the Torah while accepting the legitimacy of other ways of life in accordance with the paradigm of the universal “seven commandments of the children of Noah.” Jospe here answers two challenges to this thesis, one, voiced by Christian theologians, that pluralism equals relativism, and a second, voiced by the Jewish scholar, Menachem Kellner, that there are no sources for pluralism in Jewish tradition and that pluralism itself makes no sense. In presenting his arguments, Jospe invokes a wide range of ancient, medieval and modern thinkers, probing the theological possibilities for pluralism within Jewish tradition and its boundaries with relativism. In doing so, he argues that one should differentiate between moral relativism, a non-negotiable category, and epistemological relativism, where there is room for compromise.

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Scriptural paths for interfaith relations

Review & Expositor ◽

10.1177/0034637316687357 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (1) ◽

pp. 63-70

Author(s):

S. Mark Heim

Keyword(s):

Religious Pluralism ◽

Multiple Perspectives ◽

Interfaith Relations ◽

The Bible ◽

Faith Traditions ◽

Direct Teaching ◽

The One

Many aspects of Scripture bear on our relationship with neighbors of other faith traditions and on the realities of religious pluralism. Yet, the Bible does not give us direct teaching about the living religions around us. To find guidance we need to coordinate material from several contexts: material about the nature of believers’ commitment to Christ, general norms by which we should relate to our neighbors (and enemies), examples of interactions of Israelites and the God of Israel with those of other religious backgrounds, the example of the one “other” religion whose validity is affirmed in Scripture—the Judaism of Jesus and of early Christians, and evidence on the witness and encounter of early Christians with those of other faiths. This article will provide a brief overview of these resources and of the multiple perspectives available to orient Christian participation in interfaith relations.

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

Journal of Qur anic Studies ◽

10.3366/jqs.2004.6.1.21 ◽

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?

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Grotius’s De Veritate Religionis Christianae in the Context of Eighteenth-Century Debates about Christian Apologetics and Religious Pluralism

Grotiana ◽

10.1163/18760759-03501009 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 168-190

Author(s):

Christoph Bultmann

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Religious Pluralism ◽

Philosophical Perspective ◽

Ample Evidence ◽

Rabbinic Judaism ◽

Christian Religion ◽

Biblical Narratives ◽

Christian Apologetics

While there is ample evidence for the popularity and influence up to the mid-eighteenth century of Grotius’s demonstration of the exclusive truth of the Christian religion, a fresh look at the reasons for the discontinuation of this line of apologetics can be attempted. In Germany in the late 1770s, G. E. Lessing claimed that all available arguments of Christian apologetics would ‘evaporate’ when analysed from a critical philosophical perspective. This did not simply refer to the issue of the historicity of biblical narratives. Since rabbinic Judaism as well as Islam belonged to the targets of the apologetic tradition, it turns out that the concept of the plurality of religions which had found its expression in Boccaccio’s work in the ‘parable of the three rings’ only to be rejected, e.g., by Campanella, acquired a new significance in debates about the truth of natural and revealed religion.

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Multiple Perspectives on the Barriers to Identification and Management of Pediatric Voice Disorders

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/persp2.sig3.49 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 49-56

Author(s):

Jana Childes ◽

Alissa Acker ◽

Dana Collins

Keyword(s):

Academic Success ◽

Voice Disorders ◽

School Personnel ◽

Voice Disorder ◽

Multiple Perspectives ◽

Vocal Qualities ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Pediatric Populations ◽

Low Incidence ◽

University Settings

Pediatric voice disorders are typically a low-incidence population in the average caseload of clinicians working within school and general clinic settings. This occurs despite evidence of a fairly high prevalence of childhood voice disorders and the multiple impacts the voice disorder may have on a child's social development, the perception of the child by others, and the child's academic success. There are multiple barriers that affect the identification of children with abnormal vocal qualities and their access to services. These include: the reliance on school personnel, the ability of parents and caretakers to identify abnormal vocal qualities and signs of misuse, the access to specialized medical services for appropriate diagnosis, and treatment planning and issues related to the Speech-Language Pathologists' perception of their skills and competence regarding voice management for pediatric populations. These barriers and possible solutions to them are discussed with perspectives from the school, clinic and university settings.

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Design-Effects in Prospective and Retrospective Memory for Actions

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027//1618-3169.50.1.4 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 4-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Petra Jahn ◽

Johannes Engelkamp

Keyword(s):

Prospective Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Prospective Memory Task ◽

Retrospective Memory ◽

Ample Evidence ◽

Relational Information ◽

Design Effects ◽

Verbal Tasks ◽

Within Subjects

There is ample evidence that memory for action phrases such as “open the bottle” is better in subject-performed tasks (SPTs), i.e., if the participants perform the actions, than in verbal tasks (VTs), if they only read the phrases or listen to them. It is less clear whether also the sole intention to perform the actions later, i.e., a prospective memory task (PT), improves memory compared with VTs. Inconsistent findings have been reported for within-subjects and between-subjects designs. The present study attempts to clarify the situation. In three experiments, better recall for SPTs than for PTs and for PTs than for VTs were observed if mixed lists were used. If pure lists were used, there was a PT effect but no SPT over PT advantage. The findings were discussed from the perspective of item-specific and relational information.

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Psychological Adjustment of Melanoma Survivors

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001.27.3.172 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 172-182 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Y. Hamama-Raz ◽

Z. Solomon

Keyword(s):

Malignant Melanoma ◽

Marital Status ◽

Psychological Adjustment ◽

Attachment Style ◽

Cognitive Appraisal ◽

Traumatic Events ◽

Well Being ◽

Personal Resources ◽

Secure Attachment ◽

Ample Evidence

The study examines the contributions of hardiness, attachment style, and cognitive appraisal to the psychological adjustment of 300 survivors of malignant melanoma: The findings show that the survivors' adjustment is by far better predicted by their personal resources and cognitive appraisal than by their sociodemographic features (with the exception of marital status) and features of their illness. Of all the variables, their adjustment was best predicted by their attachment style, with secure attachment making for greater well-being and less distress. These findings add to the ample evidence that personal resources help persons to cope with stressful or traumatic events.

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