Part 1-The Fact of Religious Pluralism
Awareness of other religions and cultural traditions is one of the central features of our time. Marcus references Diana Eck’s book “A New Religious America.” The central argument of the book is that religious pluralism is a fact of contemporary American life. The 1965 immigration act opened immigration to countries outside of Europe. Since then, America has seen an increase in immigration from Asia, the middle east and Africa resulting in an increase in people practicing religions other than Christianity and Judaism. Thus, religious pluralism is becoming a cultural reality in a previously Christian, Jewish and Secular America. There are 6 million Muslim Americans which is more than combine total of Episcopalians and Presbyterians and about the same number of Jewish Americans. There are 4 million American Buddhists many of these are immigrants or children of immigrants but a fair number are also converts. There are about 1 million Hindus which is roughly equivalent to membership of the United Church of Christ and there are about three hundred thousand Sikhs. Religious pluralism is not limited to metropolitan areas, it reaches even some rural areas in states all across the country. The American religious landscape is changing very dramatically in our time. In the 1950s scholarly writing on religious diversity in America meant Protestant, Catholic and Jew times have changed. It is now imperative that we understand other religions, the events of September 11 have made this imperative more urgent and practical. Those of us who are Christian can be enriched by learning about other religions and it can help us to better understand what it means to be Christian. Religious pluralism can help us to understand our own tradition better. Whoever knows only one religion is unlikely to understand what religion is about.
Part 2-Seeing Religions Again:The essence and purpose of religions
Religions are cultural-linguistic traditions. Each religion originates within a particular culture and thus it uses the language and symbols of that culture. If that religion survives for long enough, it becomes a cultural-linguistic tradition in its own right with its own symbols and world view, thus being Christian or Muslim is a little like being French or Italian.
Religions are human constructions. Their scriptures, teachings, practices and doctrines are all human products. Religions are imaginative human creations. Not all religious people would agree with this statement, many traditions would say their religion is a divine product dictated to their prophets. In the academic setting this is understood as a characteristic of religions, people seek to ground their sacred traditions in divine origin.
Religions are a response to the experience of the sacred. Marcus believes there is a God, a wondrous, stupendous More. At the heart of every major religious tradition are experiences of this sacred More. Religions are human products created in response to experiences of the sacred using the framework of the cultures the sacred was experienced by.
Religions are wisdom traditions. Wisdom tries to answer the questions, ‘how shall I live and what is life about?’ Religions are disclosures about how to live and what life and reality are about. They are the accumulated wisdom of centuries of thinkers.
Religions are means of ultimate transformation. Religions are practical a tool for ultimate transformation of the deepest spiritual self. The product of this transformation across religious traditions is compassion.
Religions are sacraments of the sacred. A sacrament is a mediator of the sacred or the spirit, something finite through which the spirit becomes present to us. Music and nature for example have often been described as sacraments. Religions are intended to be mediators of the sacred. The purpose of their scriptures and their practices is to be a vehicle for the sacred to become present to us. If we look at the past few hundred years of Christianity there has been a massive emphasis on believing but if you see religion as a sacrament then the point is not to believe in the sacrament but to live within the tradition as a sacrament and let the sacrament do its work within you and mediate the sacred to you.
Part 3-Similarities and Differences Among the Religions
The commonality among religions
Religions are grounded in experiences of the sacred, each major religion has a mystical strand and those strands are all very similar.
Religions are very similar in the path that they teach. Most religions have a path or way at the center of their message. This is obvious in the four fold path of Buddhism and the way in the New Testament. These traditions both talk about letting go of one’s former self or dying and being reborn as someone new. The word Islam means submission, which refers to a radical centering in God and not in culture, tradition or yourself. One of the sayings attributed to Mohamed is ‘die before you die’ which is a metaphor for death and rebirth into a new way of thinking.
Religions are similar in their practices, they all practice worship and prayer. They are also very similar in the life that results, namely a life of compassion.
The differences among religions
Religions are as different as the histories, cultures and languages that shaped them-three scholars on the topic
William James in the concluding chapter of his book “The Varieties of Religious Experience” covers the similarities and differences between religions. He says they are most similar in the kinds of experiences reported, the practices they enjoin, and the behavior that results namely compassion. The religions are most different in their beliefs and doctrines, in their conceptualizations. This makes sense in that beliefs and doctrines are most effected by culture.
Rene Guenon in his writings distinguishes between esoteric core and exoteric form. The internal core is the experiential core that lies at the heart of each religion. The external forms of the religions are their scriptures, institutions and their beliefs. His claim is that the esoteric core of each of the major religions is very similar and perhaps identical. It is in their exoteric forms that they are different.
Huston Smith speaks of the “primordial tradition” by that phrase he means going back to the beginnings of the religions traditions but also an underlying understanding that is common through all the enduring religions of the world. These understandings are, one, a multilayered understanding of reality namely that in addition to the material world we see there are non-material levels of reality and two, a multilayered understanding of the self body, mind, soul, spirit. He finds this multilayered understanding to be at the heart of each of the enduring religious traditions.
Two comments about the external forms. The external forms matter. Religions are the way that spirituality gets traction within history. Religions are to spirituality what schools are to education. You can become a self educated person by avoiding all institutions of learning but it is like reinventing the wheel every generation. The external forms matter because they are meant to be vehicles of wisdom. The second way external forms matter is when the external forms are emphasized and the set of beliefs becomes the defining trait for the religion and the basis of exclusivity. When this happens the differences between religions become more apparent than their similarities. Religious dialogue becomes basically impossible when the external forms like scriptures are absolutized as in fundamentalism. Conversion becomes the goal and conflict is often the result.
Part 4-Christians and the Issue of Pluralism
Rejecting Christian Exclusivism
Marcus believes it is important to reject the Christian exclusivism of the last several centuries. Exclusivism expressed in the ideas of ‘Jesus is the only way to salvation,’ and ‘Christianity is the one true religion.’ The Roman Catholic tradition believes there is no salvation outside their specific church. Protestants believe that there’s salvation through Jesus and only Jesus and that Protestants have Jesus. Marcus does not really believe in either of these exclusive views for one, would the creator of the whole universe choose to be known in only one religious tradition? It is very difficult to reconcile the notion that only a few specific people are saved with the Christian emphasis on grace. Radical grace means God’s unconditional acceptance of us. Grace becomes conditional if it requires that we believe in a specific sect of the Christian tradition. Through his own experience and his relationships with people of other religions, Marcus believes the sacred is known to all the enduring religions and not only in Christianity. Marcus believes that seeing the similarity of Christianity to other religions adds to the credibility of Christianity rather than threatening it.
The Significance of Jesus
The New Testament contains about three passages that are exclusive, Marcus refers to one that keynotes how very central Jesus was to the life of early Christians. The passages that assert Jesus is the only way can be explained as exclamations of devotion coming from experiences of finding access to God through Jesus. Marcus quotes John Hick in saying these passages are “poetry of devotion, and hyperbole of the heart.” Marcus likens the language to the way lovers speak to each other, we don’t critically dissect the statement “you’re the most beautiful person in the world.” This is hyperbole of the heart, but making doctrine out of hyperbole is asking for problems.
John 14:6 In which John quotes Jesus as saying “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to God but by me” It is very important to ask about that verse, what is the way that Jesus is? Jesus is the incarnation of the way for John but what is the way that Jesus is the incarnation of. Jesus embodies the path of death and resurrection, no one comes to God without dying to and old way of being and being reborn to a new identity. Jesus is the incarnation of a universal truth and path known in every enduring religion, not a unique and exclusive path unknown anywhere else. This does not mean that we should take the word of Jesus more lightly because he is one of many. Central to Christian identity is finding the decisive disclosure of God through Jesus, Jews find it in the Torah, Muslims find it in the Koran, that is what makes them Jewish, Muslim or Christian. We can say Jesus is the decisive disclosure of God without saying he is the only disclosure of God. Krister Stendhal said “We can sing our love songs to Jesus with wild abandon without needing to tell dirty stories about other religions.”
Conclusion
Why be Christian in an age of religious pluralism? God doesn’t care weather you are a Christian, Jewish, Islamic or Buddhist. Being a Christian is to live your life in the Christian tradition. Marcus sees rejecting Christianity as refusing to eat at a banquet when you are hungry. For Marcus, the Christian tradition feels like home like no other tradition could, in addition Marcus loves the antiquity, wisdom and beauty of Christianity. Marcus sends us all off with best wishes.