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Religious pluralism

Religious plurality and

religious pluralism

R

eligious plurality is simply a fact. There are religious traditions that
differ deeply in terms of their doctrines, practices, institutions,
scriptures, experiences, and hopes. Our concern is with religious
pluralism – RP for short. RP is one interpretation of religious plurality. It
comes in several varieties, among which one is in danger of becoming
canonical. The nearly canonical version says that all nice religious
traditions are “equally valid.” Its longest expression is in Professor John
Hick’s 1989 An Interpretation of Religion.^1 The expression that makes the
strongest effort to answer criticisms is Professor Hick’s 1995 A Christian
Theology of Religions.^2 We will focus on the 1995 expression, assessing RP
as one finds it there.

The content of religious pluralism

At least much of the core of RP is captured by these claims.^3

1 Each religion asks generically the same question: how do we get from
our present lack to a better future?^4
2 Each world religion is a response to the same thing.^5
3 Each world religion has its own phenomenal reality.^6
4 Since each world religion has its own phenomenal reality, the claims of
one world religion do not conflict with those of another world religion.^7
5 Responding to this phenomenal reality is, so far as we can tell, equally
effective in each world religion.
6 Each world religion is equally valid.^8
7 The sentences that apparently express the doctrines of the great world
religions actually are mythological in the sense of telling a story which
elicits behavior.
8 The mythology is true if the behavior is good.^9