One thing is for sure--the term "Multi-Faith" is not that commonly used, so it becomes whatever the speaker intends. On this thread, it started out to mean a combining of two or more of the great world religions--Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.
Merton's interest in Zen and Buddhism is well known. What's not so well known was his keen interest in Sufism. One of the best talks I've heard on basic Sufism is a recording of Thomas Merton in a series of lectures he gave to his fellow Monks. Merton corresponded by letter to several Sufi's around the world. In the Preface to "Merton & Sufism, The Untold Story", Sufi Seyyed Hossein Nasr shares how he made preparations for Merton's planned month long visit with him in Pakistan to study Sufism. For myself, I see it as a huge loss in that Merton died shortly before that trip from Thailand to Pakistan. The reason for his visit to Thailand was an inter-faith conference that he was attending in Bangkok.
I don't think a person can even relate to Christ with out knowing that Christ aspect of Him.
You're not alone in what you're explaining to us, especially when it comes to The Episcopal Church. But that's not really the issue (as I understand the OP). The issue is whether or not it is intellectually honest or possible to be true to two different and conflicting faiths at once, not just whether there is some church body that will accept members who do this.
Yes. I'm glad to see you make that point.
Right. And as was noted before, this isn't what the thread started out to ask about. "Multi-Faith" didn't mean multi-denominational OR that someone might borrow something like a custom or benign tradition from some other non-Christian faith.
And I'd agree with this, too. However, it also didn't seem to be the point of the OP but, rather, that the idea that was in mind was whether it would be intellectually consistent to be a Christian and also some other one of the great world religious systems.
Someone could be multi-faith because they were raised that way. I know my good friends and neighbors were raised Jewish and Christian and were in practice Christian Jews or Jewish Christians (whichever you prefer). Their mother was Christian and their father was Jewish. They sporadically attended church and synagogue. They celebrated major Jewish holidays such as Yom Kippur, Passover and Hanukkah as well as major Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
