What makes me question that belief is that I keep running into believers of different religions where God is just as alive and vibrant within those believers as He is in any other religion.
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Multi-Faith
- Thread starter obolixterix
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The Bible tells me there are many. Nebuchadnezzar, for example, had his gods that where not the same as the one the 3 Hebrews were worshipping. There are many examples in the Bible of people worshipping other gods
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"Spiritually they are one" is also the main position of philosophical Hinduism, but with rather different thinking where, for example, Jesus comes out as one of a progression or group of remarkable individuals (this cuts right across the teaching of standard Christianity, of course)
I long tried to reconcile myself to this idea as it is liberal, tolerant, and makes significant inroads into issues arising from living in a multi-faith society.
Personally, I can't do it, as I find not enough of a common thread, common values, agreement about the nature and demands of the deity, the nature and mode of salvation...
It is indeed possibly to produce a "harmony" of most (but not all) religions, but I observe that this is not a happy fusion but Procrustean surgery, bits of various faith having to be hacked off or twisted about to produce the "fit" The procedure assumes that nothing vital from any religion has been excised and discarded, and that no essential change in voice and message has occurred to to any of the source religions.
This is just not the case, and it can usually quickly be seen with such attempts which religion has been taken as the "most correct" one, to which the others have "been found" (less a limb or two) to agree.
It is a pity, but I can't with honesty, make the idea work.
Either one version of theistic religion is a far better match for reality than , the others, or none of them is a useful representation. There is no need to consider which, at this point: the sheer difference between them is sufficient.
Those taking a "mix" or a "cocktail" for their beliefs do not seem (to me) to be engaging with with the concept of the existence of God implying a particular nature for that deity. Of necessity? I think so.
(but that does not matter, immediately, if "religion" is being used as a social and psychological entity, on the human level. The connect with reality and a god existing or not does not quickly arise from this perspective.)
Again, the Hindu thought and approach to "oneness" is rather different. Non-duality, all appearances actually being only one thing is a core and fundamental doctrine. Therefore *whatever* apparent separation or difference, everything is one.
That's a whole different idea, even though it has powers of assimilation approaching those of the Borg.
Chris
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5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me
Isaiah 45.
Doesn't mean that more than one God exists.
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I think for most folks, a single spiritual trajectory might be the best way to go. There is a lot of comfort (and more) in knowing ones way towards God as a singular focus. For others though, they do find a common thread and values and even agreement about the nature and demands of God in the various spiritual traditions. For myself, I find those common threads not in the outer form of the religion, but in God Himself. So I"m more interested in actually making God a reality in my life than I am with salvation concerns, which I have completely left up to God.
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Multi faith cannot work in many circumstances. Judaism and Christianity are mutually exclusive, for example. So is Christianity and Islam and so on.I suppose there is a way to compromise between some faiths, but not without major restructuring of the basic tenets. Many people profess a believe in a single divine character, but it's the fine detail that matters the most in the end.
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Albion
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That's what I was thinking, danny. While there may be two religions that would not present that problem, it usually is the case that to embrace one religion necessarily means denying the other. What people who call themselves "multi-faith" actually are doing, therefore, is bolting onto one religion a few incidentals or observances borrowed from another one.
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I don't think that's true for me. I'm not bolting any observances or incidentals or even beliefs together. I'm looking at God Himself and seeing Him very alive and vibrant with in others of different spiritual trajectories.
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"It depends". It depends on the religions, specifically.
Some faiths are contradictory if adhered to in completeness with other faiths that are similar. Such as Islam and Christianity or Christianity and Judaism.
However, syncreticism is everywhere [and interests me quite a bit] around the world. The Eastern religious world is a common example as many Eastern religions tend to have a lot of mixing among Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto etc.
As a pagan I think that syncreticism is by and large how pagan ideas have survived, even thrived. Many pagan faiths stand on their own but I think that syncreticism, especially in the west, is widespread and many such syncretic types do not see contradictions in faith.
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Arthra
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I'm active in a local Interfaith Council and we just had an Interfaith Thanksgiving service... for me the issue of getting along with other religions ... Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Catholics, Lutherans, Mormons, Baptists, Hindus has largely been resolved by involvement in inter-faith activities. The more we work together in community the better!
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I think interfaith council gatherings are a good idea because the reality on the ground is that people are all people and there is no reason to demonize them as the other. It's nice that you live in a place with such diversity so that you can effectively have these things!
Not the original poster but I don't see how it is a bad thing. Worse case scenario it is a "neutral" thing as people always take their prior experiences forward with them in life. It just is human nature, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to apply experiences from previous religions onto new ones.
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To me it's a bad thing if a Christian does that. Our God is sufficient for us. His word does not need to be augmented with conventional wisdom or anything from any of these other religions
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Aelred of Rievaulx
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Some religions are capable of syncretism and others aren't. To my knowledge Zen is a religion very capable of syncretism, one need only read the writings of Thomas Merton to see that there have been Catholic Zen.
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