Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth PDF
Preview Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth
Truth in Religion THE PLURALITY OF RELIGIONS AND THE UNITY OF TRUTH, An Essay in the Philosophy of Religion Mortimer J. Adler COLLIER BOOKS MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK MAXWELL MACMILLAN CANADA • TORONTO MAXWELL MACMILLAN INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK - OXFORD • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY Copyright © 1990 by Mortimer J. Adlei All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Collier Books Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc. Macmillan Publishing Company 1200 Eglinton Avenue Ease 866 Third Avenue Suite 200 New York, NY L0022 Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N1 Macmillan Publishing Company is part of the Maxweli Communication Group of Companies. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Adler, Mortimer Jerome, ——— Truth in religion: the plurality of religions and the unity of truth: an essay in the philosophy of religion/Mortimer J. Adler. — 1st Collier Books ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-02-064140-0 1. Religion. 2. Truth. 3. Religious pluralism. I. Title. IBL50.A35 1992} 9^-31083 C1P 200'.l~dc20 Macmillan books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact: Special Sales Direcror Macmillan Publishing Company 866 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 First Collier Books Edition 1991 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 Printed in the United States of America C O N T E N TS PREFACE vn CHAPTER 1. The Restriction of Pluralism 1 CHAPTER 2. The Logic of Truth 10 CHAPTER 3. The Study of Religion and Mythology 40 CHAPTER 4. Truth in Religion 69 CHAPTER 5. Recapitulation and Conclusion 101 APPENDICES The Unity of Man and the Unity of Truth 113 Cultural Unity and Cultural Pluralism 129 Human Nature, Nurture, and Culture 145 INDEX 157 v P R E F A CE FOR many years I have been concerned with cultural pluralism and for the need to restrict it to matters where such pluralism is desirable as well as unavoidable. That is why I have included in this volume as appendices excerpts from three lectures given at earlier dares. One was a lecture I delivered in 1973 at the Aspen Institute. The question had been raised whether Far Eastern great books should be included in the list of readings for the seminars being conducted in Aspen, along with the great books in the tradition of Western civilization. The lecture was, in part, my effort to explain the reasons for my emphatically negative answer. The second appended lecture was delivered in Tokyo at International House in 1978 to an audience of scholars, sci entists, and philosophers from the local universities as well as leading businessmen. I called the attention of that audience VII PREFACE to the conflict between two spheres of thought in some Far Eastern cultures: on the one hand their trust in Western tech nology and in the soundness of its underlying mathematics and physics; on the other hand their devotion to their religious beliefs and practices. Were they content, I asked, to keep these two commitments in logic-tight compartments and so prevent them from challenging each other? Were they not disturbed by the apparent schizophrenia that they suffered in consequence of this? They were, I discovered from the discussion thereafter, quite content, quite undisturbed. The third appendix is of more recent date although it is a summation of many lectures that I have given at Aspen in the last twenty-five years. I delivered this one in July of 1989- The excerpts chosen from that lecture deal especially with the sameness of human nature at all times and places and with the sameness of the human mind wherever we find human beings. In 1981, when I wrote the chapters on truth in Six Great Ideas, I further developed the distinction between matters of taste, with respect to which pluralism is desirable, and matters of truth, with respect to which it is not; and I raised rhe question whether philosophy and religion belonged to the sphere of taste or to the sphere of truth. I call attention to these earlier lectures and to the chapters on truth in Six Great Ideas because some of the things said there are repeated in this book in order to make advances that were not made in these earlier materials. The advances were provoked by four recent books, two on mythology, one by Professor Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty en titled Other Peoples' Myths, the other by Professor Joseph Camp bell entitled The Inner Reaches of Outer Space. Both books have a bearing on the question of truth in religion. The other two books are directly concerned with where truth lies among the plurality of religions. One of these is by Pro- vm PREFACE fessor Harvey Cox entitled Many Mansions, the other is by Father Hans Kung entitled Theology for the Third Millennium: An Ecumenical View. I have dealt with the views of O'Flaherty and Campbell in Chapter 3, and with the views of Cox and Kung in Chapter 4. Having explained the background of this book by referring to the three appendices and also what motivated me to write it, I now wish to provide a brief outline of the chapters that constitute! the book itself. The title of this book indicates that its two main subjects are the plurality of religions and the unity of truth. Hence I begin in Chapter 1 with a discussion of pluralism and what restrictions,must be imposed upon it when we are concerned with matters of truth as differentiated from matters of taste —matters in which the diversity of opinions and preferences must be acknowledged, and accepted without argument. Everyone is familiar with the maxim Degustibus non disputandum, est: about matters of taste, there is no disputing. But not everyone is familiar with the maxim De veritate disputandum est: about matters of truth, we should engage in dispute- that is, we should have recourse to the effort to reach agreement about what is true and false. Chapter 2 sets forth the logical considerations that underlie one's engagement in the pursuit of truth in any field in which persons claim truth for their views, their doctrines, or their beliefs. Readers will find there a full explanation of what is involved in the separation of matters of truth from matters of taste as well as the argument for the unity of truth against those who think that incompatible views, doctrines, or beliefs can be embraced as true. In Chapter 3, concerning the study of religion, a working definition! of religion will be advanced and criteria will be :\' ix M. JUJI .n-Vjii proposed for classifying the major world religions in existence today. Almost all of them, if not all, make claims for the truth of their beliefs—the prescriptive truth of their moral precepts or the descriptive, factual truth of their credal commitments, or both. In some religions, credal commitments may not be explicitly expressed, but they are always implicitly presup posed by claims for the truth of prescriptive moral precepts. It is in this context that mythology is discussed in relation to religion, and their difference is illuminated by the distinction between poetical truth and logical truth, descriptive or pre scriptive. Chapter 4 deals with the difficult problem of wl^ere the truth lies in the plurality of religions that not only differ from One another but make incompatible claims about the truth of their beliefs concerning God, the cosmos, and human nature, as well as about the truth of their prescriptions concerning how human beings should conduct their lives. It is there that the unity of truth comes into play in dealing with the plurality of religions that make incompatible claims of truth. The book ends, in Chapter 5, with questions to be answered rather than with answers, with issues to be resolved rather than with their resolution. I must caution readers that I have written this book as a philosopher and not as a communicant of one of the world's great religions. It is, therefore, not a piece of apologetics, arguing for the truth of one religion as opposed to others. It attempts to clarify the problem of truth in religion, but it does not attempt to solve it. In my judgment, the clarification it provides is a step toward the solution. Finally, I must express my indebtedness to Otto Bird, as sociated with me for many years at the Institute for Philo sophical Research, for all the help he has given me in the preparation and writing of this book; to John Van Doren, also x PREFACE my colleague at the Institute, for his advice and assistance; to Professor Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty of the University of Chi cago Divinity School, for the helpful conversations we had about mythology and religion; and to my secretary, Marlys Allen, for her patience in dealing with the revision of the manuscript. XI
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