scholarly journals Cruzando fronteiras: um diálogo teológico-literário sobre o pluralismo religioso na obra A Viagem de Théo, de Catherine Clément | Crossing borders: a theological-literary dialogue about religious pluralism in the book The Theo’s Journey, by Catherine Clément

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Rita Cassia Scocca Luckner

Resumo A obra A Viagem de Théo: Romance das Religiões, de autoria da filósofa Catherine Clément, narra a jornada espiritual do personagem Théodore Fournay (Théo), um jovem francês que sofre de uma grave doença e que, convidado por sua tia Marthe, viaja para diversos continentes, visitando templos e centros sagrados, adquirindo conhecimento sobre outras culturas e sobre algumas das religiões praticadas no mundo, em busca de uma ajuda espiritual. A obra demonstra a diversidade religiosa existente no mundo e de como o ser humano tem se dado conta disso, principalmente devido ao efeito da globalização. Essa diversidade tem gerado estudos e chamado a atenção de teólogos, antropólogos, cientistas da religião e de estudiosos de outros campos do conhecimento. Buscou-se, neste artigo, uma análise da obra A Viagem de Théo, apontando os elementos que remetem às ideias de pluralismo religioso e suas implicações. A obra aborda o divino por meio da linguagem literária e, por retratar aspectos de diversas religiões, aponta que o diálogo inter-religioso ou interfé envolve respeito e abertura para falar e ouvir, a aprender com o outro, a conscientizar de que o diálogo envolve pessoas e não determinada religião ou instituição religiosa. Tais premissas despertam uma reflexão sobre a forma de ser cristão pelo viés da polidoxia, que reconhece a diversidade dentro da religião cristã como também a pluralidade de comunidades religiosas e espirituais do mundo.Abstract Theo’s Journey: Romance of religions, authored by the philosopher Catherine Clément, narrates the spiritual journey of the character Théodore Fournay (Théo), a young French who suffers from a serious illness and, at the invitation of his aunt Marthe, they travel to different continents, visiting temples and sacred centers, acquiring knowledge about other cultures and some religious practiced in the world, seeking spiritual help. The book demonstrates the religious diversity that exists in the world and how human beings have become aware of it, mainly due to the effect of globalization. This diversity has generated studies and has drawn attention of theologians, anthropologists, scientists of religion and the theoristis from other fields of knowledge. Through this article we seek an analysis of the work The Theo’s Journey , pointing out the elements that refer to the ideas of Religious Pluralism and its implications. The Journey of Theo, which beyond the description of some aspects of various religions, approached the divine through literary language, and points out that interreligious or interfaith dialogue should be faced with respect and openness to talk and listen, learn from each other, aware that dialogue involves people, religious or otherwise, and not a particular religion or religious institution. Such premises arouse a reflection on the way of being Christian through the bias of polidoxy, which recognizes the diversity within the Christian religion as well as the plurality of religious and spiritual communities in the world.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
pp. 205-236
Author(s):  
Sri Rosmalina Soedjono

Discourse on religious pluralism emerged in the west along with the demands of globalization. Where the owner of power over the modern world wants an order that can bring together the various inhabitants of the world by removing various religious barriers and a single claim to the truth. But this current of view becomes problematic when it collides with the truth by various existing religions. The rejection is very strong, especially from within the Islamic religion. Although the concept of pluralism meets equality in Islam which means diversity, but the fundamental paradigm on which pluralism is built is very different, Western Pluralism departs from the value of secularism while Pluralism in Islam's view is built on the truth value of the revelation of the Qur'an and Hadith. Diversity according to Islam does not require that there is a truth that must be recognized together, but the truth of each religion must be defended. Furthermore, even though humans have different religions and views of life, according to Islam, fellow human beings must be able to work together within the boundaries of worldly affairs to create a just and compassionate life together with fellow human beings, while still holding fast to their respective religions. Although the atmosphere of interfaith dialogue does not need to be prevented and hindered each other, all in an atmosphere of freedom and harmony.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Parker ◽  
Chang-Yau Hoon

Abstract Scholarly predictions of the secularization of the world have proven premature. We see a heterogeneous world in which religion remains a significant and vital social and political force. This paper reflects critically upon secularization theory in order to see how scholars can productively respond to the, at least partly, religious condition of the world at the beginning of the twenty first century. We note that conventional multiculturalism theory and policy neglects religion, and argue the need for a reconceptualization of understanding of religion and secularity, particularly in a context of multicultural citizenship — such as in Australia and Indonesia. We consider the possibilities for religious pluralism in citizenship and for “religious citizenship”. Finally, we propose that religious citizenship education might be a site for fostering a tolerant and enquiring attitude towards religious diversity.


Author(s):  
Rochana Bajpai

What role does secularism have in the governance of religious diversity in an age marked by the assertion of religio-cultural identities across the world? India, with its long history of religious pluralism, a state ideology of secularism, and the ascendancy of Hindu nationalism, is a key site for examining the disposition of secularism towards religious identities and diversity. Secularism and multiculturalism are often seen as opposed in political debates involving religious minorities, notably the well-known French headscarf case. Several scholars have suggested that religious traditions offer better resources for toleration than modern secularism (for India, see, for example, Madan 1998: 316; Nandy 1998:336–7). Others, more sympathetic to secularism, have also suggested that it may be deficient in the normative resources required for the accommodation of religious practices, particularly in the case of minorities (Mahajan, this volume; Modood 2010).


Author(s):  
Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook

The major religious traditions of the world—Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, to name but a few—all stress the need for human beings to create sacred spaces where they can thrive. This chapter utilizes the idea of sacred spaces as a means for teaching interreligious studies, and as a pedagogical tool for enabling interreligious learning. Human beings are persistently inclined to ground their religious and spiritual experience in sacred spaces. This commonality arises from the important role sacred spaces play in human attempts to structure and understand religious (spiritual) experience. The chapter also explores the relationship between “third space” thinking and interreligious spaces. How might a new spatial language of interreligious learning help communities engage the complexities of religious pluralism?


2002 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Crone Nielsen

»At tale med de døde ...« Om sækularisering og hermeneutik i Kaj Thanings forfatterskab. Bibliografi over Kaj Thanings forfatterskab[»Talking with the dead« - On secularisation and hermeneutics in the writings of Kaj Thaning]By Mikkel Crone NielsenKaj Thaning’s thesis that Gr.’s visits to England 1829-31 led to his »conversion to life« and emergence as advocate of ‘secularisation’ has proved both influential and controversial, as has his methodological approach to the interpretation of Gr.’s writings with its underpinning thesis that Gr.’s entire literary production is determined by the one basic problem: how the relationship between human life and Christianity is to be understood.Raised in a Grundtvigian and clerical family, Thaning overtly personalized the theological issues that involved him. From 1922 onwards he was an activist in the Danish student-Christian association (Danmarks kristelige Studenterforbund), which was to voice through the periodical Tidehvery a radical criticism of the inward-turned and exclusive character of contemporary Danish congregational life, which judgmentally isolated itself from those powerful secular movements going on within national life as a whole. He held that it was not the true nature of the gospel, and therefore not the proper business of the Church, to exercise a judgmental power over the secular world.Rather, the congregation instead of clinging to ‘churchliness’ should provide an open place among the people where the gospel, which is for all the people, was proclaimed. The Church must be willing to risk a weakening of Christianity’s spiritual influence in this desirable process of ‘secularisation’.Believing that such ‘secularisation’ was entirely within the spirit of Gr. himself, contrary to the received ‘myth’ of Gr., Thaning proposes (1941) to »work with Gr. in his workshop« - to follow Gr. through his successive writings, as he hammered out his beliefs. Thus he analyses Gr.’s confrontation with himself (opgør med sig selv) in the wake of the England-visits, the outcome of which was Gr.’s rejection of German idealism in favour of an antiidealistic, common-sense thinking which Thaning calls ‘realism’. In the introduction to his Nordic Mythology (1832), Gr. moves towards prioritizing the human experiencing of existence in this world, here and now, over the cultivation of an empowered Christian religion, and towards seeing Christianity as endorsing rather than opposing this existential engagement with the life given in creation and with the moment.Charged by his critics with applying modem existentialist theological concepts alien to Gr., Thaning defends the concept ‘secularisation’ which he has adopted from Friedrich Gogarten - though he can be shown to have trodden his own independent path, especially in that, where Gogarten derives his justification from the Christian faith itself, Thaning derives his from a recognition of the innate worth of created human life without necessary reference to the Christian religion. The Christian gospel disavows any apologetic intention or any imposition of authority over its adherents, and God’s word must wander the world homeless. Redemption is to be understood in terms of the freeing of created human life from its shackles - the very shackles which gnosticism would lay upon human beings, namely utter disavowal and rejection of the world and the human experiencing of it. The critique of religion informing Thaning’s writings is primarily directed against such gnosticism - which he calls ‘pilgrim-Christianity’ (pilgrimskristendom) - as it thrives in latter-day Lutherdom. Gr. is himself aware of his role as a father of such ‘secularisation’ and Thaning, following him, is prepared to find the starting-point for his own ‘secularisation-theology’ even in ‘heathen’, non-Christian human life, because this is what life demands.Central to Thaning’s interpretative method is the assumption that historical distance between an author and a commentator can be bridged when the issue is one of common human existential experiencing. With Rudolf Bultmann (and behind him, Heidegger), Thaning accepts that the neutrality of a systematic, objective analysis is thus relinquished in favour of an existential interest in the shared situation addressed. The exegete meets the text with his own premises in mind, expecting that the text will then cast new light upon them. Thus a dialogue is validated; but subjective arbitrariness in the exegete is constrained by adherence to »a formal anthropology and an existential analysis«.Thaning’s understanding of that life given to human beings in creation is greatly indebted to the religious-historical writings of Vilhelm Grønbech, who in particular rejects the distinctively European concept of human life as a pilgrimage through an imperfect world to the perfection of the heavenly homeland, along with its resultant dualistic perception of a true, spiritual self engaged in a struggle with the natural self. Herein, Thaning perceives not just a European but a universal and historical conflict between religion and human life, which stance furnishes him, in practice, with a theological hermeneutic.Thus Thaning engaged in a generational confrontation with a certain traditional Grundtvigian conceptualisation of the Christian congregation. Though he made little overt declaration of his hermeneutical method, he worked with discernible controlling concepts and brought to the task an enormous knowledge of Gr.’s writings. Accordingly he made an unparalleled impact upon Gr. studies and his work stands as an indispensable reference-point in Gr. research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Philip Suciadi Chia ◽  
Frederich Oscar Lontoh ◽  
Surja Permana ◽  
Juanda Juanda ◽  
Daniel Ari Wibowo

Since Indonesia is also one of the most diverse societies in the world such as there are over three hundred different ethnic groups in Indonesia, each with its own cultural identity, and more than two hundred and fifty distinct languages are spoken, then Pancasila is created as philosophic fundamentals of the state to supports the diversity in Indonesia. Pancasila (from a Sankrit word: panca: five and sila: principle) consists of five principles that are interrelated and inseparable to generate unity in diversity (bhinnekatunggalika). In this paper, I will argue that Pancasila promotesand facilitates religious diversity although religious culture in Indonesia does not promote religious pluralism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Laimayum Bishwanath Sharma ◽  
Thokchom Shantilata Devi

This paper explores Gandhi’s attitude towards diversity of religions and examines as to how he attempted to bring inter-faith harmony. Religious diversity has been a topic of serious debate in the contemporary philosophical discourse on understanding religion. Religious pluralism is one of the approaches that deal with issues concerning the diversity of religions. It is believed that no single religion can make absolute claims about the nature of divine reality, its relation to man and the world. It stands in direct opposition to exclusivism, inclusivism and also to fundamentalism by denying that any one religion is the sole possession of the whole truth. Different religions seem to put forward different and incompatible interpretations about the nature of ultimate reality, about the modes of divine activity, the nature and destiny of the human race.


Moreana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (Number 209) (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Phélippeau

This paper shows how solidarity is one of the founding principles in Thomas More's Utopia (1516). In the fictional republic of Utopia described in Book II, solidarity has a political and a moral function. The principle is at the center of the communal organization of Utopian society, exemplified in a number of practices such as the sharing of farm work, the management of surplus crops, or the democratic elections of the governor and the priests. Not only does solidarity benefit the individual Utopian, but it is a prerequisite to ensure the prosperity of the island of Utopia and its moral preeminence over its neighboring countries. However, a limit to this principle is drawn when the republic of Utopia faces specific social difficulties, and also deals with the rest of the world. In order for the principle of solidarity to function perfectly, it is necessary to apply it exclusively within the island or the republic would be at risk. War is not out of the question then, and compassion does not apply to all human beings. This conception of solidarity, summed up as “Utopia first!,” could be dubbed a Machiavellian strategy, devised to ensure the durability of the republic. We will show how some of the recommendations of Realpolitik made by Machiavelli in The Prince (1532) correspond to the Utopian policy enforced to protect their commonwealth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Syarifudin Syarifudin

Each religious sect has its own characteristics, whether fundamental, radical, or religious. One of them is Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, which is in Cijati, South Cikareo Village, Wado District, Sumedang Regency. This congregation is Sufism with the concept of self-purification as the subject of its teachings. So, the purpose of this study is to reveal how the origin of Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, the concept of its purification, and the procedures of achieving its purification. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method with a normative theological approach as the blade of analysis. In addition, the data generated is the result of observation, interviews, and document studies. From the collected data, Jamaah Insan Al-Kamil adheres to the core teachings of Islam and is the tenth regeneration of Islam Teachings, which refers to the Prophet Muhammad SAW. According to this congregation, self-perfection becomes an obligation that must be achieved by human beings in order to remember Allah when life is done. The process of self-purification is done when human beings still live in the world by knowing His God. Therefore, the peak of self-purification is called Insan Kamil. 


Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danson Sylvester Kahyana

The article examines how selected works in Uganda’s first anthology of prison-authored work, As I Stood Dead before the World: Creative Writing from Luzira Prison (2018), handle one of the issues of paramount importance to inmates and their families: the possibility that convictions in courts of law are not foolproof since judicial officers are human beings and therefore susceptible to error. Drawing from four examples: two poems (Jackson O’s “Letter to Aber” and Sebuuma Gadafi’s “Twenty-Years”), one short story (Rachael Pearl Orishaba’s “A Secret”), and one short play (Jennifer Janette’s “What If It Wasn’t Kato?”), I show how different inmates imagine situations where judicial officers (prosecutors and magistrates/judges) make errors of judgement that see innocent people convicted of crimes they did not commit. The article closely reads the four selected pieces with the objective of investigating how creative writers can help judicial officers realise how important it is to turn every proverbial stone before a conviction is made.


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