Early bishop Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35-107) writes that if any follow a schismatic [that is, the founder of a religious group outside of the bishop-ruled catholic mainstream] they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Letter of Ignatius to the Philadelphians 3:3) Leading catholic theologian Origen of Alexandria (c. 186-255) wrote: outside the Church no one is saved. (Dupuis 2001, 86-7) Yet Origen also held, at least tentatively, that eventually all rational beings will be saved. [This entry examines the origins and differing patterns of development of the world's major religious traditions, as well as the varying patterns of interaction between these religions and the social, political, and economic frameworks with which they coexist. Another, without saying that people may be saved through membership in them, affirms various positive values in other religions, including true teachings, which serve as divinely ordained preparations for reception the gospel. Morales, Frank [Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya]. 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. Some Buddhist texts teach that there can be a solitary Buddha (pratyekabuddha), a person who has gained enlightenment by his own efforts, independently of Buddhist teaching. But since early modern times, increasing information from travel, publishing, and emigration have forced thoughtful people to reflect more deeply on religious diversity. 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. The Equality Act replicates the provisions of previous legislation. These are the undisputed facts of religious diversity. 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. | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples This view was affirmed by Pope Pius X (r. 1846-78) in his Singulari Quadam (1854): outside the Apostolic Roman Church no one can be savedOn the other handthose who live in ignorance of the true religion, if such ignorance be invincible, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord. (Neuner and Dupuis 2001, 311). Why Diversity in Religion is Important - SelfGrowth.com A common strategy here is to simply ignore disreputable religious traditions, only discussing the prestigious ones. (Mawson 2005), Historically, Buddhist thought about other religions has almost never been pluralistic. 1939), have formulated various pluralist theories. One may object that this above proposal is counter to the equalizing spirit of pluralism. State University of New York at Fredonia A common form of negative pluralism may be called verificationist pluralism. This is the view that all religious claims are meaningless, and as a result are incapable of rational evaluation. This is not compatible with his thesis that Vishnu and others are phenomena of the Real, that is, culturally conditioned ways that the Real appears to us. 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. It has been typical also for Buddhist thinkers to hold that at best, the same is true of other religious traditions. Protestant versions of exclusivism can be at least as strict as Augustines. Religion and religion diversity are expressed by believers to cause strong opinions and emotions in all environments. It would seem that that, for example, a Christian to accept this ultimist pluralism, she will have to reinterpret what many Christians will regard as a core commitment, namely, that the ultimate reality is personal. It can build strength of character, pride, and confidence. Research on religious diversity has found that when the percentage of a dominant religion and religious diversity are both included, the proportion of the dominant religion is an arithmetic component of the religious diversity measure (Chaves and Gorski 2001; Olson 1999), resulting in a misspecified model. Religious Diversity and Change in American Social Networks: How Our The Characteristics of Religious Education Teachers and Respecting With the split of the catholic movement into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches, the church was understood in Western contexts to be specifically the Roman Catholic church. This is an inclusivist view about getting the cure, and about central religious truths. Since the latter twentieth century many Roman Catholic theologians have explored non-exclusivist options. It is here described as Identist pluralism because his theory claims that people in all the major religions interact with one and the same transcendent reality, variously called God, the Real, and the Ultimate Reality., Hick viewed religious belief as rationally defensible, and held that one may be rational in trusting the veridicality of ones religious experiences. Carefully worked out theories of religious pluralism often sound all-inclusive. 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). First, some religious claims can be empirically confirmed or disconfirmed. The tradition now called Hinduism is and always has been very internally diverse. When employees feel that they are valued and that their contributions are . These, however, are mere associations; there seems to be no obvious entailments between the theories of religious diversity and the above qualities. How could a perfect being fail to be available to all people in all the religions? In Mahayana Buddhism, the ultimate reality, a formless but active non-thing, is Emptiness, or the Truth Body (Dharmakaya). 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? In the second, even a virtuous pagan might be a church member. These objects of religious experience are mind-dependent, in that they depend for their existence, in part, on people with certain religious backgrounds. (Burton 2010; Kiblinger 2005; and section 4c below) But in modern times, some have constructed a novel and distinctively Buddhist pluralism using the Mahayana doctrine of expedient means (Sanskrit: upaya). A vast diversity of religious and spiritual traditions exists, and your clients may be affiliated with any of them. 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. 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. Facts and Theories of Religious Diversity, Abe, Masao. (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. Religious diversity is the fact that there are significant differences in religious belief and practice. All religions are equal? Diversity, Divisions, Religion, Caste, Secularism, News, Theocratic states, Terrorism, Fundamentalism, Extremism, Congress, BJP, Communism. Religious Diversity Around The World | Pew Research Center Religious Diversity - World Atlas of Global Issues - Sciences Po 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. 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. It is only modern people who are blinded by the misunderstanding that science reveals all, who have forgotten it. Some practices seem compatible, such as church attendance and mindfulness meditation. 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. Unfortunately, it is often used with some mix of the above values in mind, leaving it unclear exactly which values are pertinent. Even a Mahayana Buddhist may have a lot of adjusting to do, if she is to admit that believers in a personal God really do experience the greatest entity, and something which is not separate from Emptiness. (Hick 2011), A less developed identist pluralism is explored by Peter Byrne. An increasingly prominent and potentially contentious phenomenon, religious diversity is intimately associated with contemporary issues such as migration, human rights, social cohesion, socio-cultural pluralisation, political jurisdiction, globalisation, and reactionary . religion or belief. And secondly, we have all the different: Experiences Talents Skills Opinions Personalities These differences, for example employees' talents, are less obvious and require the organization's effort and proactiveness to shine. In the first case, a person who is killed in an accident on her way to be baptized would nonetheless be in the church. However, they nearly always have at least one criterion for excluding religions as inferior in the aspect(s) they focus on. "Exploring the Impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - LinkedIn This in some sense manifests as, acts as, and is not different from a host of Enjoyment Bodies (Sambhogakaya), each of which is a Buddha outside of space and time, a historical Buddha now escaped from samsara and dwelling in a Buddha-realm. Given that it is ineffable, this Being is neither a god, nor the God of monotheism. Others find it excessive that Smith accepts other traditional doctrines, such as that Platos Forms are not only real but alive, that in dreaming the subtle body leaves the body and roams free in the intermediate realm, belief in siddhis (supernatural powers gained by meditation), possession by spirits, psychic phenomena, and so on. Most people understand that the religious landscape is a very diverse place. It has been objected that this theory is not promising because it is hard to see how we could ever have sufficient evidence for some of its claims, while others are implausible in light of the evidence we do have. While Smiths view rests on belief in an impersonal Ultimate, other versions of core pluralism rest upon monotheism. But Stenmarks some-are-equally-right view can also be seen as a form of core pluralism, the core being truths about the one God and our need for relationship with God. That's why religious diversity is so important. A Primer on Diversity - Resources (Hick 2004; Quinn and Meeker 2000) Hicks approach is original, thorough, and informed by a broad and deep knowledge of many religions. (Dupuis 2000, 91-2). Nor can he be fruitful and multiply while living as a celibate Buddhist monk. Many religious claims will be logically incompatible with the accepted diagnosis, and many religious practices will be useless or counter-productive when it comes to getting what one believes to be the cure. A plurality of different religions, major and minor, exist in the world, each believing different things. 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. In other contexts, religious pluralism is a normative principle requiring that peoples of all or most religions should be treated the same. Local variations in Protestant practices and ethnic differences among the white settlers did foster a religious diversity. Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live for it to be included in the definition. (OConnor 1999) This exclusivism is compatible with both exclusivism and inclusivism in this article. Diversity and discrimination (Long 2011) Still, some Hindus object to various kinds of pluralism. However, he thought that it is arbitrary and indefensible to hold that only ones own experiences or the experiences of those in ones group are veridical, while those of people in other religions are not. 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. 2-4; Meeker 2003), Hicks identist religious pluralism has been objected to as thoroughly as any recent theory in philosophy. Influential German theologian Karl Rahner (1904-84), in his essay Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions, argues that before people encounter Christianity, other religions may be the divinely appointed means of their salvation. The impetus for this change was fueled by statements from that council (their Latin titles: Lumen Gentium, Ad Gentes, Nostra Aetate, Gaudium et Spes, Heilsoptimismus), which are in various ways positive towards non-Catholics. 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). Monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam agree that there is a sole God. 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. If a religion cures only a shallow, derivative human problem, leaving the deeper problem intact, then what it offers would not deserve the name salvation, for it would leave those who achieve it still in need of the cure. It is a matter of dispute whether certain famous Sufi Muslims such as Rumi (1207-73) and Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) have held to some form of religious pluralism. All religions, then, are equal in that they are responses to the ineffable Ultimate Reality which equally wellor for all we can tell equally wellbring about an ethical improvement in humans, away from self-centeredness and towards other humans and the Ultimate Reality. Instead, it is the view that all religions are valid, meaning that they have some degree of (some kind of) value. It is a mistake to think that the ultimate is any substantial, self-identical thing, even an ineffable one. Religion and Rights in a Diverse, Multicultural Community The second part contains answers to questions linked to the treatment of differences in religious education in Croatia and characteristics of teachers that can be linked to this theme. 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. This was a polemic against non-Mahayana versions of Buddhist dharma (teaching). If the core is salvifically effective practice, then all will be equal in that each is equally well a means to obtaining the cure. 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. 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. 7; Griffin 2005b). sexual orientation. Religion Diversity in the Workplace In today's workplace, there are many rules and regulations to ensure the wellbeing of the employee. Later theologians added a baptism of desire, which was either a desire to be baptized or the inclination to form such a desire, either way enough to secure saving membership in the church. But these lesser ways should and eventually will give way to Christianity, the truest religion, intended for all humankind. Definition of the Religion as a Form of Diversity Essay - Free Essays 1919) In his view, the common core of religions is a tiered worldview. (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. Characteristics of cultural diversity : Multiplicity of cultures Each worldview is the product of the individual development of a people. 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). It is impossible that all three experiences are veridical. (Datta 2005; Morales 2008) It has been argued that whether and how a Hindu embraces a theory of religious pluralism will depend crucially on what she takes Hinduism to be. true? Wouldnt this be to attribute more reality to God than shes willing to? Ethnic or national origins include, for On this view, all the religions are right to the same degree, that is, all versions of monotheism (or perhaps, ethical monotheisms, or Abrahamic monotheisms). The basic idea is that the inclusivist grants more of the values in question to religions other than the single best religion more truth, more salvific efficacy, more veridical experience of the objects of religious experience, more genuine moral transformation, and so forth. The following was edited from Brie Loskota's opening remarks at Reimagining Religion: A Conversation about the Future of Religion, held at University of Southern California on February 9, 2017.. We are in a period of flux, a period of rapid and continuous change, where the old order is being torn down, where people are disaffiliating from groups, and where institutional life is being . (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. When it comes to freedom of religion, it matters how people of faith are spoken of in politics and the media. Even God, the greatest concrete, actual being in this philosophy is, in the end, an all-encompassing unity of experience, and is to be understood as a process of Creative-Responsive love. (Griffin 2005b; Cooper 2006, ch. If the core is true teachings, theyll all be true (to some degree). (Dupuis 2001, 86-9), However, what about Jews, pagans, unbaptized babies, or people who never have a chance to hear the Christian message? Heim suggests that we should instead assume that other religions both pursue and achieve real and distinct religious salvations (goals or ends). A Dynamic Unity in Religious Pluralism: A Proposal from the Buddhist Point of View., Bogardus, Tomas. the coexistence of various perspectives (political, religious), backgrounds (racial/ethnic, sexual orientation, nationality) gender) variety. The classic discussion of this is in the Lotus Sutra (before 255 C.E. : a critical examination of some formulations of the Neo-Hindu position., Smith, Huston. 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.