Religious Diversity Around The World | Pew Research Center Because of this, arguably exclusivism (or inclusivism, see section 4 below) is a default view in religious traditions. The Global Religious Landscape | Pew Research Center Religious Diversity in Psychology: Examples & Impact More Empathy Griffin and Cobb seem to attribute the deepest insight to those who think the ultimate reality is an impersonal, indescribable non-thing. Thus, for example, the earliest Buddhist and Christian sources prominently feature staunch criticisms of various rival teachings and practices as, respectively, false and useless or harmful. The Epistemological Challenge of Religious Pluralism., Ignatius of Antioch, The Letter of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, in, King, Nathan. This is an inclusivist view about getting the cure, and about central religious truths. 3, 3-4). The classic discussion of this is in the Lotus Sutra (before 255 C.E. Social scientists have conceived of diversity in a variety of ways, including the degree to which a society is split into distinct groups; minority group size (in share and/or absolute number); minority group influence (the degree to which multiple groups are visible and influential in civil society); and group dominance (the degree to which one Hick realizes the incoherence of dubbing all religions true, for they have core teachings that conflict, and most religions are not shy about pointing out such conflicts. (Legenhausen 2006, 2009). Such an outlook, often called the perennial philosophy or traditionalism, owes much to nineteenth and twentieth century occult literature, and to neo-Platonism and its early modern revivals. Cobb and Griffin assume that there is no supernatural intervention (any miraculous interruption of the ordinary course of nature) by God or other beings. Religious Diversity and its Challenges to Religious Belief.. In reply, Hick urges that his claims are not themselves religious, but are rather about religious matters, and are, as such, philosophical. How can a Theravada Buddhists accept that such a heavenly next life is a good and final end for non-Buddhists? A Cross-cultural and Buddhist-Friendly Interpretation of the Typology Exclusivism-Inclusivism-Pluralism., Griffin, David Ray. If the core is veridical experiences, all religions will enable ways to perceive whatever the objects of religious experience are. Nor can he be fruitful and multiply while living as a celibate Buddhist monk. 1928) and Paul Knitter (b. We could loosely paraphrase Hicks view as being that all religions are false, not that all their teachings are false (for there is much ethical and practical agreement among them), but rather that their core claims about the main object of religious experience and pursuit equally contain falsehoods. Subjectively, those other people have similar grounds for belief. When employees feel that they are valued and that their contributions are . While some characteristics of diversity include age, gender, the color of the skin. The historical Buddha, the man Gautama is, in this doctrine, a Transformation Body (or Apparitional Body, Nirmanakaya) of one of these, as are other Buddhas in time and space. Heim strenuously objects to pluralist theories that they impose uniformity on the various religions. (Stenmark 2009) He does not advocate this view, but explores it as an alternative to exclusivism, inclusivism, and Hickian identist pluralism. (Yandell 2013), Again, it has been objected that Hick, contrary to many religions, downgrades religious practice and belief as inessential to a religion, the only important features of a religion being that it is a response to the Ultimate Reality and that it fosters the ethical transformation noted above. In this and in a later book Heim asserts that such a plurality of ordained religious goals is implied by the doctrine of the Trinity. Facts and Theories of Religious Diversity, Abe, Masao. State University of New York at Fredonia It is hard to see, then, how his theory enables one to be, as Hick claimed to be, a pluralistic Christian, given that one has replaced the diagnosis and cure of Christianity with those of Hicks pluralism. Of adult Americans, 89% believe in God, down slightly from 2007. Equally, Advaita Vedanta Hindus must let go of their insistence on Nirguna Brahman as ultimate. (Dupuis 2000, 91-2). U. S. A. 1) Race as a negative social construct: physical appearance is used to discriminate, to exclude, to exploit, to abuse, and/or to profile, as in educational systems, traffic and criminal systems, housing and banking/mortgage lending, and medical care. On the one hand, it is difficult to consistently distinguish inclusivism from exclusivism, because the latter nearly always concedes some significant value to other religions. For example, both Christians and Buddhists have adopted religious-diversity-celebrating rhetoric while clearly denying anything described above in this article as a kind of pluralism about religious diversity. Religious diversity - differences within and between religious groups in a society - has re-entered the sociology of religion in new and powerful ways. (OConnor 1999) This exclusivism is compatible with both exclusivism and inclusivism in this article. At bare minimum, the slogan that all religions are true means that all religions are in some way directed towards one Truth, where this is understood as an ultimate reality. But these monotheists and cosmos-worshipers each take their object to be ultimate, and would deny the existence of any further back entity or non-entity, that is, of Creativity. Some forms of naive pluralism suppose that all religions will turn out to be complementary. This naive pluralism is refuted by accurate information on religious differences. The slogan was nearly always, in the first three Christian centuries, wielded in the context of disputes with heretical Christian groups, the point being that one cant be saved through membership in such groups. Again, if a Christian diagnosis is correct, that humans are alienated from and need to be reconciled to God, yet some manage to attain Nirvana, they would still lack the cure, for it is no part of Nirvana that one is reconciled to God. Second, the claim that meaningfulness requires the possibility of empirical verification has little to recommend it, and is self-refuting (that is, the claim itself is not empirically verifiable). Exclusivism, Pluralism, and Anarchy.. Monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam agree that there is a sole God. Religious Diversity - World Atlas of Global Issues - Sciences Po A theory of religious pluralism says that all religions of some kind are the same in some valuable respect(s). Instead, Hick downgrades the importance of true belief to religion. Religion and Rights in a Diverse, Multicultural Community 7). (Hick 1982 ch. Or are those gods mere fictions? While this trichotomy is sometimes thought of in terms of general attitudes that a religious person may have towards other religionsapproximately the attitudes of rejection, limited openness, and wide acceptance respectivelyin this article they figure as theories concerning the facts of religious diversity. On the Plurality of Religious Pluralisms., Long, Jeffery D. Anekanta Vedanta: Towards a Deep Hindu Religious Pluralism., Long, Jeffery D. Universalism in Hinduism., Mawson, T.J. Byrnes religious pluralism., Meeker, Kevin. Methodology | Pew Research Center Religion Diversity in the Workplace In today's workplace, there are many rules and regulations to ensure the wellbeing of the employee. Dale Tuggy The Problem of Contingency for Religious Belief,, Byrne, Peter. Religious Diversity (Pluralism) - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy But others teach that the ultimate reality is a perfect self, a being capable of knowledge, will, and intentional action. Another way in which pluralism can be naive is the common assumption that absolutely all religions are good in significant ways, for example, by improving their adherents lives, facilitating interaction with God, or leading to eternal salvation. Religious Diversity, Theories of | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy one? 3) The highest level in some sense is the human Spirit, the deep self which underlies the self of ordinary experience. What Is Religion? Defining the Characteristics of Religion Most religions are theistic in the sense that they posit the existence of a personal Supreme Being (God) or set of personal deities, although within some belief systems normally labeled religionsfor example, Buddhismthere is no belief in such a being. Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs It is more real than all that comes from it. (Hasker 2011) At first Hick evades the issue of polytheism by describing his theory not as a kind of polytheism, but rather as poly-something. He then suggests that two views of the personae are compatible with his theory: that they are mental projections, or that they are real, but angel- or deva like beings, intermediaries and not really gods. Exploring the trend in religious diversity: Based on the geographical Roughly, pluralistic approaches to religious diversity say that, within bounds, one religion is as good as any other. This account is narrower than pluralism is usually thought to be, but it is arguably a version of it. The most and least racially diverse U.S. religious groups Race Race is a protected characteristic that refers to an individual's race, colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins. The latter two classes of beings, but not the first, may be described as personal.. Letters by Pius XII (r. 1939-58) declared that a by an unconscious desire and longing non-Catholics may enjoy a saving relationship with the church. The Religious Diversity Index is divided into four ranges: very high (the top 5% of scores), high (the next highest 15% of scores, which works out to 16% because of tie scores), moderate (the next 20% of scores) and low (the bottom 59% of scores). Thus Christians, for example, imagine that in prayer they interact with the ultimate, a monotheistic god, but in fact they interact with angels, and perhaps different Christians with different angels. Or what sense would it make for an Orthodox Jew, whose religion teaches him to be fruitful and multiply, to employ the Buddhist practice of viewing corpses at a burial ground so as to expunge the unwanted liability of sexual desire? Scholars distinguish seven aspects of religious traditions: the doctrinal and philosophical, the mythic and narrative, the ethical and legal, the ritual and practical, the experiential and emotional, the social and organizational, and the material and artistic. Why Diversity in Religion is Important - SelfGrowth.com This encompasses the idea that physical reality, the terrestrial plane, is contained within and controlled by a more real intermediate plane (that is, the subtle, animic, or psychic plane) which is in turn contained and controlled by the celestial plane. Finally, inclusivist theories try to steer a middle course by agreeing with exclusivism that one religion has the most value while also agreeing with pluralism that others still have significant religious value. (Sharma 1979) But if there is no one clear modern Hindu pluralism, it remains that various modern Indian thinkers have held to versions of core or identist pluralism. Judaism is . Dissenters are found among historians of religion, who deny that there is and has always been a common core in all of the worlds religions. Following these same steps, our second . Religious pluralism in some contexts means an informed, tolerant, and appreciative or sympathetic view of the various religions. Cultivating Awareness of Religious and Spiritual Diversity 1933) and English convert to Islam, Martin Lings (1909-2005) who was a biographer of Muhammad. He applies the Mahayana doctrine of the three bodies of the Buddha to other religions. Though not true, doctrines such as the Trinity or the Incarnation, he argues, may be interpreted to have mythological truth, that is, a tendency to influence people towards getting what Hick postulates is the cure offered by the religions, the ethical transformation described above. Inclusivism for some authors just means a friendlier or more open-minded exclusivism. Presumably not, as she already believes in levels of truth and levels of reality. For example, people have empirically disconfirmed claims that Jesus will visibly return to rule the earth from Jerusalem in 1974, or that magical ghost shirts will protect the wearer from bullets, or that saying a certain mantra three times will protect one from highway robbers. Moreover, it seems a necessary truth that if the concept personal doesnt apply to the Real, then the concept non-personal must apply to it. true? It is a mistake, Abe holds, to regard any god as ultimate, and monotheists must revise their understanding as above, if true inter-religious dialogue and peace are to be achievable. Finally, Cobb and Griffin emphasize that this approach does not endorse any unreasonable form of relativism and, as such, allows one to remain distinctively Christian or Buddhist and so forth. (For others see Hick 2004, Introduction.). Facts and Theories of Religious Diversity Scholars distinguish seven aspects of religious traditions: the doctrinal and philosophical, the mythic and narrative, the ethical and legal, the ritual and practical, the experiential and emotional, the social and organizational, and the material and artistic. (Smith 1992, 2003 ch. How could a perfect being fail to be available to all people in all the religions? Many people associate any sort of pluralist theory of religious diversity with a number of arguably good qualities. But Heims theory does not require them to be, but only that they occur and may be plausibly thought of as fulfilling to those who have them. Abes views have been criticized by other scholars as misunderstanding some other religions claims, and as privileging Mahayana Buddhist doctrines, insofar as he understands these doctrines as being truer than others. Some have urged that it be replaced by the more neutral terms particularism or restrictivism. (Netland 2001, 46; Krkkinen 2003, 80-1) This article retains the common term because it is widespread and many have adopted the label for their own theory of religious diversity. Some theorized, for instance, that a baptism of blood, that is, martyrdom, would be enough to save unbaptized catechumens. And how can the ultimist pluralist demand such changes? After catholic Christianity became the official religion of the empire (c. 381), it was usually assumed that the message had been preached throughout the world, leaving all adult non-Christians without excuse. (Peterson et. An uninformed person, noting certain commonalities of religious belief and practice, may suppose that all religions are the same, namely, that there are no significant differences between religious traditions. This sort of core pluralism was propounded by some members of the Theosophical Society such as co-founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-91) in her widely read The Secret Doctrine (1888), and by French convert to Sufi Islam Ren Gunon (1886-1951) and those influenced by him, such as the eclectic Swiss-German writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-98). Carefully worked out theories of religious pluralism often sound all-inclusive. Hicks claim that no human concept applies to the Ultimate Reality has been criticized by many, whove pointed out that Hick applies these concepts to it: being one, being ultimate, being a partial cause of the impersonae and personae, and being ineffable. On the other hand, many theorists want to adopt the friendly and broad-minded sounding label pluralism for their theory, even though they clearly hold that one religion is uniquely valuable. Physical appearance becomes a way of allowing particular groups of people to feel that they are . (Plantinga 1999, 124-5; Neuner and Dupuis 2001, 305) Note that this might still be interpreted with or without the various non-standard ways to obtain church membership mentioned above. There are three serious problems with verificationist pluralism. In some sense these three are one, however, the Truth Body manifests or acts as various Enjoyment Bodies, which in turn manifest or act as various Transformation Bodies. An exclusivist stance is often signaled by the claim that there is only one true religion. Other religions, then, are false. A naive person may infer from this that no claim, or no central claim of any other religion is true, but all such are false. For instance, as an inclusivist Christian, Heim holds that Buddhists really do attain Nirvana. Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live for it to be included in the definition. On the other hand, others seem to make little or no sense outside the context of the home religion, and others are simply incompatible. When it comes to freedom of religion, it matters how people of faith are spoken of in politics and the media. It can build strength of character, pride, and confidence. If, for example, in his view Allah, Vishnu, and Yahweh are all real and distinct, is Hick thereby committed to polytheism? Email: filosofer@gmail.com Such an outlook is commonly perceived as meaningless, hopeless, and devoid of value. Some philosophers, going against the much-discussed identist pluralism of John Hick (see 2e above) use exclusivism to mean reasonable and informed religious belief which is not pluralist. Religious Pluralism and the Some-Are-Equally-Right View., Yandell, Keith. (Heim 1995, 7). (Dupuis 2000, 161-5) Some Catholic theologians have seen the seeds or even the basic elements of inclusivism in these statements, while others view them as within the orbit of a suitably articulated exclusivism. Literature since 1950 focuses on the truth or rationality of religious teachings, the veridicality (conformity with reality) of religious experiences, salvific efficacy (the ability to deliver whatever cure religion should provide), and alleged directedness towards one and the same ultimate religious object. This sort of pluralism, following Gunon and Schuon, has been championed by Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. One asserts not merely the possibility, but the actuality of salvation for those who are inculpably ignorant of the gospel but who seek God and try to follow his will as expressed through their own conscience. What sense, for instance, would it make for a Zen Buddhist to undergo the Catholic rites of confession and penance? One idea is that all religions would turn out to be parts of one whole (either one religion or at least one conglomeration of religions). John Cobbs Whiteheadian Complementary Pluralism., Hasker, William. As a relative latecomer which has always acknowledged the legitimacy of previous prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, while proclaiming its prophet to be the greatest and last, Islam has, like Judaism, tended towards inclusivist views of other religions. (Mawson 2005), Historically, Buddhist thought about other religions has almost never been pluralistic. (Neuner and Dupuis 2001, 309-10) It also seems to close the door to non-standard routes to church membership, saying that never was anyone, conceived by a man and a woman, liberated from the devils dominion except by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Tanner 1990, 575) Non-Catholics will go into the everlasting fireunless they are joined to the catholic church before the end of their livesnobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if has shed his blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and the unity of the catholic church. (Tanner 1990, 578), This exclusivistic or rigorist way of understanding the slogan, on which only the Roman Catholic church could provide the cure needed by all humans, was the most common Catholic stance on religious diversity until mid-nineteenth century. However, he maintained that people in the religions interact with it indirectly, by way of various personae and impersonae, personal and impersonal appearances or phenomena of the Real. Such would be the work of a religiously embedded and committed theology of religious diversity, not of a general philosophy of religious diversity. Insofar as a religion claims to possess a diagnosis of the fundamental problem facing humans and a cure, that is, a way to permanently and positively resolve this problem, it will then assume that other, incompatible diagnoses and cures are incorrect. Religious Diversity in the Workplace: Definition & Laws In Mahayana Buddhism, the ultimate reality, a formless but active non-thing, is Emptiness, or the Truth Body (Dharmakaya). Judaism and Other Faiths., Datta, Narendra [Swami Vivekananda]. It is difficult to make a fully clear distinction between exclusivist and inclusivist approaches. Most people understand that the religious landscape is a very diverse place. It can be argued that Abe is an inclusivist, maintaining that Buddhism is the best religion, rather than a true pluralist. (Krkkinen 2003, 197-204, 309-17). It is a mistake to think that the ultimate is any substantial, self-identical thing, even an ineffable one. (Hick 2000, 2004), As to Hicks idea that the correlation of birthplace and religious belief somehow undermines the rationality of religious belief, it has been pointed out that religious pluralism too is correlated with birthplace. (McDermott and Netland 2014, 148) But these are sometimes tempered with loopholes such as: a universal chance to hear the gospel at or after death, a free pass to people who die before the age of accountability, or the view that less was required to be saved in pre-Christian times. How DIVERSE Are the Religions? - Religion 101 (Hick 2004; Quinn and Meeker 2000) Hicks approach is original, thorough, and informed by a broad and deep knowledge of many religions. The traditional Islamic perspective is that while in one sense Islam was initiated by Muhammad (570-632 CE), Islam in the sense of submission to God was taught by all prior prophets, and so their followers were truly Muslims, that is, truly submitted to God. al. It's also important because in the 21st century there are global problems and issues which seemingly have religious origins and which will take a concerted effort of people of different faiths to help resolve. (Sharma 1999, ch. Age diversity Age diversity means working with people of different ages and, most importantly, generations. We should respect freedom of religion by rejecting the kinds of false and damaging claims that are sometimes made about religion, especially Islam. These negative qualities include but are not limited to: being arrogant, unreasonable, mean, narrow-minded, closed-minded, uninformed, provincial, out of date, xenophobic, bigoted, intolerant, in favor of proselytism, colonialist, and imperialist. Preparation For The Future If a workplace has done the necessary work, it's bound to be culturally diverse. (Dupuis 2000, 165-170) A key area of disagreement is whether or not these imply that a person may be saved by means of their participation in some other religion. A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion. The unaffiliated represent close to 5%. Religious Pluralism: Generic, Identist, Deep., Griffin, David Ray. 6). Hick doesnt argue for the salvific or cure-delivering equality of all religions. (Krkkinen 2003; Netland 2001) The most famous of these has been the view (held by some Christians) that all non-Christians are doomed to an eternity of conscious suffering in hell. Although you may be nervous about broaching the subject, it is important to discuss religious diversity so . The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity Swedish philosopher Mikael Stenmark explores what he calls the some-are-equally-right view about religious diversity, and discusses a version of it on which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are held to possess equal amounts of religiously important truths. All the theories discussed in this article are ways that (usually religious) people regard other religions, but here we discuss them abstractly, without descending much into the details of how they would be worked out in the teachings and practices of any one religion. (Plantinga 1999, 288-303), Subsequent papal statements have moved cautiously in Rahners direction, affirming the work of the Holy Spirit not only in the people in other religions, but also in those religions themselves, so that in the practice of what is good in those religions, people may respond to Gods grace and be saved, unbeknownst to them, by Christ. What are the 7 key areas of diversity and their characteristics? OConnor, Timothy. These connections between theory and character which are believed by some to provide practical arguments for or objections to various theories need to be argued for. Diversity in religion is one of the world's strengths, not one of its weaknesses. This would be the view of many naturalists, who hold that all religions are the product of human imagination, and fail to have most or all of the values claimed for them. These qualities include but are not limited to: being humble, reasonable, kind, broad-minded, open-minded, informed, cosmopolitan, modern, properly appreciative of difference, non-bigoted, tolerant, being opposed to proselytizing (attempts to convince those outside the religion to convert to it), anti-colonialist, and anti-imperialist. (Burton 2010) On the other hand, some religions teachings are simply false and their practices are unhelpful; the contents of their prescribed beliefs and practices matter. Thus, in experiencing what they call Emptiness or the Dharmakaya (truth body), Mahayana Buddhists really do perceive what Cobb calls Creativity (or Being Itself), as do Advaita Vedanta Hindus when they perceive Nirguna Brahman (Brahman without qualities). 7; Griffin 2005b). (1995, 2004) All the major religions are equal in that they (1) refer to and facilitate cognitive contact with a single, transcendent reality, (2) each offers a similarly moral- and eternal-oriented cure, and (3) each includes revisable and incomplete accounts of this transcendent reality. (Legenhausen 2009), The term religious pluralism is almost always used for a theory asserting positive value for many or most religions. Finally, because of their fit with many traditional religious beliefs and commitments, sometimes exclusivism and inclusivism are considered as two varieties of confessionalism, views on which one religion istrue andwe must view other religions in the light of that fact. (Byrne 2004, 203). (Peterson et. He switches to the term transcategorial, points out historical versions of this thesis, and urges that the Real simply is not in the domain of entities to which concepts like personal and non-personal apply. Still, given that Muhammad is the seal of the prophets, his teachings and practices should, and some day will supersede all previous ones. Hinduism., de Cea, Abraham Vlez. However, God has ordained Nirvana as a goal suitable for some non-Christians to both pursue and attain. In modern times, it tries to equalize other religions in the same ways it equalizes the apparently contrary claims and practices internal to it. With truth, the problem is that it is hard to see how the core claims of the religions could all be true. 3 There are many ethnic groups in the United States, due in large part to its immigrant population; each of these groups contributes to America's cultural heritage. Religious Diversity | The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion At the same time, they argued that many people who are outside the one church cannot be blamed for this, and so will not be condemned by God. There are even cases of Buddhists seeking to turn devotees of other religions traditions into anonymous Buddhists who worship Buddhist deities without realizing that this is the case. (Burton 2010, 11), Forming his views by way of a detailed critique of various core and identist pluralist theories, Baptist theologian S. Mark Heim (b.