Abstract
Interreligious dialogue does not take place in a vacuum, nor is it a matter of casual conversation. Dialogue is a contested phenomenon, advocated and embraced on one hand, eschewed and discarded on the other. By way of an exploration of the fact of plurality, the notions of modernism and postmodernism, and a brief discussion of select pertinent issues (unity, truth, and the very idea of theology), the paradigmatic context of pluralism will be critically discussed. Contemporary engagement in interreligious dialogue and interfaith relations requires to be underpinned by a carefully thought-out conceptualising of the context in which it can authentically occur. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the context of and for interreligious dialogue.
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Notes
See Race, Alan, Christians and Religious Pluralism. 2nd Edition, London: SCM Press Ltd, 1993. See also D’Costa, Gavin, Theology and Religious Pluralism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
Cf. Pratt, Douglas, ‘Contextual Paradigms for Interfaith Relations’, Current Dialogue, No 42, December 2003, pp. 3–9.
See Lyotard, Jean-Francois, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. G. Bennington and B. Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Cf. Grenz, Stanley, A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1996, p. 39; Jasper, David, (ed), Postmodernism, Literature and the Future of Theology. London: Macmillan, 1993, p. 2.
Jameson, Frederic, Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1994, p. ix.
Here we may simply note the range of perspectives from Wittgenstein’s notion of language-games; Saussure’s view of language as social convention; the structuralist critique of a Levi-Straus; and the rethinking of the hermeneutical task by, for example, such seminal scholars as Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer. Cf. Grenz, loc. cit.
Jameson, op. cit., p. 62.
Harvey, David, The Condition of Postmodernity: an enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990, p. 9.
Griffin, David Ray, William A. Beardslee and Joe Holland, Varieties of Postmodern Theology. New York: SUNY, 1989, p. xii.
Harvey, op. cit., p. 12.
Ibid, p. 10.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Harvey, op. cit., p. 20.
Ibid, 30.
Grenz, op. cit., p. 81.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Connor, Steven, Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, p. 9.
Grenz, op. cit., 81.
Grenz, op. cit., 81.
See, for example, Gellner, Ernest, Postmodernism, Reason and Religion. London: Routledge, 1992.
See Harvey, op. cit., p. 113ff.
Griffin, et al, op. cit, p. xii.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid, p. xiii.
Ibid.
Ibid. See also Tilley, T.W., ed., Postmodern Theologies: The Challenge of Religious Diversity. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1990.
Harvey, op. cit., p. 52.
Ibid.
Cf. Grenz, op. cit., p. 163.
Norris, Christopher, The Truth about Postmodernism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996, p. 16.
Jeanrond, Werner G. & Jennifer L.Rike, eds., Radical Pluralism & Truth: David Tracy and the Hermeneutics of Religion. New York: Crossroad, 1991, p. x.
Griffin, David Ray, and Huston Smith, Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY, 1989, p, 19.
Ibid.
Ibid, p. 23.
See Pratt, Douglas, ‘Religious Plurality, Referential Realism and Paradigms of Pluralism’ in Plaw, Avery, (ed.), Frontiers of Diversity: Explorations in Contemporary Pluralism. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2005, pp. 191–209; – ‘Universalising Rhetoric and Particularist Identities: Pluralism and the Future of Our Religious Pasts’. International Journal in the Humanities, Vol. 1, 2003/2004, pp. 1347-1356.
Hick, John, God and the Universe of Faiths (Rev. Edn), London: Collins, 1977, p. 121.
Pratt, Douglas, ‘Pluralism and Interreligious Engagement: The Contexts of Dialogue’. In Thomas, David, with Clare Amos, eds., A Faithful Presence, essays for Kenneth Cragg, London: Melisende Press, 2003, pp. 402–418.
Cf. D’Costa, Theology and Religious Pluralism.
Hick, John, The Rainbow of Faiths, London: SCM Press, 1995, p. 15.
Hick, John, God and the Universe of Faiths, p. 131
Ibid, p. 139
Ibid, p. 137.
Hick, John, The Metaphor of God Incarnate, London: SCM Press, 1993, p. 140.
Hick, John , The Myth of God Incarnate, London: SCM Press, 1977, p. 181.
Hick, Metaphor, p. 140.
See for example, Cobb, John B. Jr., Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982. See also Swidler, Leonard, John Cobb, et. al, Death or Dialogue? London: SCM Press, 1990.
See Cobb, John B. Jr., Beyond “Pluralism”, in D’Costa, Gavin, ed., Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered: The Myth of a Pluralistic Theology of Religions. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990, pp. 81–95.
Cf. Ariarajah, S. Wesley, Hindus and Christians: A Century of Protestant Ecumenical Thought. Vol 5 of Currents of Encounter: Studies on the Contact between Christianity and Other Religions, Beliefs and Cultures. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi; and Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1991, p. 178.
See Heim, Mark, Salvations: Truth and Difference in Religion, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995; – The Depth of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001.
See Knitter, Paul F., No Other Name? A Critical Survey of Christian Attitudes Toward the World Religions, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1985; – One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue & Global Responsibility, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1995.
Ariarajah, op. cit., p. 177.
Smart, Ninian, The World’s Religions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. See also Ludwig, Theodore, The Sacred Paths. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991; Pratt, Douglas, Religion: A First Encounter. Auckland: Longman Paul, 1993.