Religious truth and identity in an age of plurality PDF
Preview Religious truth and identity in an age of plurality
Religious Truth and Identity in an Age of Plurality This book deals with the intellectual aspects of having diverse religious expressions in proximity and the socio-political consequences. It provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on this complex subject, cross-fertilizing work on religious plurality with truth-claims from theologians as well as philosophers from the continental and analytic traditions. The book includes three major parts. Part 1 explores the ideas around religious diversity and truth; Part 2 draws out the epistemic import of reli- gious diversity; and Part 3 concludes the volume by examining the practical and social aspects of religious diversity. Bringing a transdisciplinary perspective to a topic that remains at the forefront of conversation around the religious life of the world, this book will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Theology and the Philosophy of Religion. Peter Jonkers is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Catholic Theology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Oliver J. Wiertz is Professor of Epistemology and Philosophy of Religion at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt, Germany. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies The Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Bibli- cal Studies series brings high quality research monograph publishing back into focus for authors, international libraries, and student, academic and research readers. This open-ended monograph series presents cutting-edge research from both established and new authors in the field. With specialist focus yet clear contextual presentation of contemporary research, books in the series take research into important new directions and open the field to new critical debate within the discipline, in areas of related study, and in key areas for contemporary society. Gaming and the Divine A New Systematic Theology of Video Games Frank G. Bosman Theologising Brexit A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique Anthony G. Reddie Vision, Mental Imagery and the Christian Life Insights from Science and Scripture Zoltán Dörnyei Christianity and the Triumph of Humor From Dante to David Javerbaum Bernard Schweizer Religious Truth and Identity in an Age of Plurality Peter Jonkers and Oliver J. Wiertz For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ religion/series/RCRITREL Religious Truth and Identity in an Age of Plurality Edited by Peter Jonkers and Oliver J. Wiertz First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Peter Jonkers and Oliver J. Wiertz; individual chapters, the contributors. The right of Peter Jonkers and Oliver J. Wiertz to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 9780367029371 (hbk) ISBN: 9780429019678 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Acknowledgements viii General introduction 1 PETER JONKERS AND OLIVER J. WIERTZ PART I Religious diversity and truth 27 1 Introduction to Part I: the truth-aptness of religious discourse and the problem of realism in relation to religious diversity and pluralism 29 SAMI PIHLSTRÖM 2 Truth, suffering and religious diversity: a pragmatist perspective 41 SAMI PIHLSTRÖM 3 Truth, meaning and interreligious understanding 61 ÅKE WAHLBERG 4 Belief as an artefact: implications for religious diversity 75 ELENA KALMYKOVA 5 Maimonides and Kierkegaard on fictionalism, divine hiddenness and the scope for interreligious dialogue 94 NEHAMA VERBIN vi Contents PART II Epistemic consequences of religious diversity 113 6 Introduction to Part II: the epistemic consequences of religious diversity 115 KATHERINE DORMANDY AND OLIVER J. WIERTZ 7 The epistemic implications of religious diversity 127 JOHN COTTINGHAM 8 Epistemic desiderata and religious plurality 142 OLIVER J. WIERTZ 9 “In abundance of counsellors there is victory”: reasoning about public policy from a religious worldview 162 KATHERINE DORMANDY 10 Respecting religious otherness as otherness versus exclusivism and religious pluralism: towards a robust interreligious dialogue 182 DIRK-MARTIN GRUBE PART III Practical questions concerning religious diversity 201 11 Introduction to Part III: practical questions concerning religious diversity 203 VICTORIA S. HARRISON 12 Christians and the practice of Zen 210 ALEXANDER LÖFFLER SJ 13 Reconsidering the concept of mission in the light of comparative theology 229 KLAUS VON STOSCH 14 How to break the ill-fated bond between religious truth and violence 246 PETER JONKERS Contents vii 15 Can religious diversity help with the problem of religiously motivated violence? 264 VICTORIA S. HARRISON List of contributors 281 Index of names 283 Index of subjects 287 Acknowledgements The present volume is the result of an international research project on reli- gious truth and diversity. The members of the group, consisting of philoso- phers, theologians and religious scientists, met several times between 2015 and 2017 at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt/Main. These meetings were made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. We are deeply grateful for this generous financial support. It goes without saying that the ideas expressed in this volume are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the John Templeton Foundation. We also want to express our gratitude to the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen and its staff for their hospitality. They saw to it that our meetings always took place in an enjoyable environment. We also owe words of thanks to Routledge and, especially, to Joshua Wells and Yuga Harini for their support in bringing this book to publication. Finally, we want to thank the contributors to this volume. Together, they brought about inspiring discussions and a concentrated and friendly atmos- phere during our meetings. They also made editing this volume a joyful duty. We owe special thanks to Åke Wahlberg who acted as the “secretary” of our group and also supplied the index. The Editors General introduction Peter Jonkers and Oliver J. Wiertz The overall aim of this book is to discuss the profound theoretical and practical effects of the rise of (religious) plurality for the traditional idea of religious truth, and their impact on socio-cultural identity. The main per- spective of this volume is a philosophical one, but it is also fully alive to the theological, societal and empirical aspects of this topic. In this introduction, we want to give an initial idea of the multiple connections between the three key terms, viz., religious truth, plurality and socio-cultural identity. First, these terms will be placed in a broader, societal context, since it is important to know why they have become the subject of a vivid public debate and a matter of concern to many people. Hence, it comes as no surprise that these terms are also cutting-edge topics in contemporary theology, religious studies and philosophy of religion. In order to illustrate this, we will pre- sent, in the second section, an overview of the main topics in the ongoing discussion of religious diversity in these disciplines and link them to the ways in which these questions are discussed in this volume. Given that the focus of this volume is on different aspects of religious diversity, it has to be noted that contemporary philosophy itself uses different approaches to discuss this question, commonly characterized as continental and analytical. Section three discusses this division and how this volume intends to deal with it in a constructive way. The final section pays attention to the strong theistic, Christian focus of the philosophical dealings with religious diver- sity hitherto, and to the relation between philosophy of religion, theology and religious studies. It is the hope of the contributors to this volume that these insights may inspire theologians and philosophers of religion with a non-Christian background to develop their own ideas on religious truth and identity in a context of plurality. Religious truth, plurality and cultural identity The main reason for the fact that concerns over religious truth have been mounting over the last decades has to do with the (potentially) exclusivist implications of this idea for other religions and secular worldviews and the fateful consequences for their peaceful coexistence. What has exacerbated
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