Can There Be Only One True Religion?
Material type:
TextProducer: Kalimát Press 2004Subject(s): Abstract: Explores the implications of the belief among people of various religious traditions that there can be only one true religion. The problems with this thesis include the promotion of religious strife and the inability to engage in interfaith dialogue. Suggests that the one-ture-religion idea is inconsistent with the reading of a New Testament text that supports salvation as individual transformation toward genuine altruism and love of neighbor. Such spiritual qualities are manifested as much by ordinary non-Christians and the saints of other traditions as they are by Christian believers and saints. Concludes by suggestion that conlficting truth claims of various religions are due to the influence of culture and people's different mind-sets. This pluralist perspective does not diminish the uniqueness of each tradition, but enables people from different religions to interact meaningfully in interfaith dialogue.
Explores the implications of the belief among people of various religious traditions that there can be only one true religion. The problems with this thesis include the promotion of religious strife and the inability to engage in interfaith dialogue. Suggests that the one-ture-religion idea is inconsistent with the reading of a New Testament text that supports salvation as individual transformation toward genuine altruism and love of neighbor. Such spiritual qualities are manifested as much by ordinary non-Christians and the saints of other traditions as they are by Christian believers and saints. Concludes by suggestion that conlficting truth claims of various religions are due to the influence of culture and people's different mind-sets. This pluralist perspective does not diminish the uniqueness of each tradition, but enables people from different religions to interact meaningfully in interfaith dialogue.