Religious Identity Pluralism

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This courses engages students in a study and discussion of some major aspects of the diversity of world religions, an exploration of the debated question of their respective and distinct identities, and an examination of their exclusiveness and oppositions as well as commonalities and convergences. Although some background information about major religions will be provided by the instructor and/or researched by students, this is not an introductory course to contemporary world religions but an examination of contemporary discourses on the issues of religious identity, religious diversity and contemporary concepts of religious pluralism. The question of religious diversity, and its implications as exemplified by religious conflicts and cultural clashes between the Christian and Islamic worlds, among others, has been at the centre stage of international affairs. On the other hand, globalization and the information technology have made widely available an unprecedented amount of primary and secondary sources about world religions and wisdom traditions originating from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and the world Shamanistic traditions. This information has suggested to some the possibility of the emergence of a trans-religious language of spirituality, as testified by the so-called New Age movement. Moreover, globalization and the information revolution have suggested the emergence of a new religious pluralistic paradigm. By contrast, a number of contemporary collective identities have crystallized around religious concepts, and sometimes hardened into aggressively exclusivist, and even violent, movements. Hence the very pressing relevance of an examination of commonalities among world faiths, as well as the need for a rigorous understanding of the foundations of distinct religious identities. The dialectics of religious unity and diversity will be envisaged on several levels and in several realms through a multifaceted approach to the religious phenomenon. Metaphysics, theology, comparative religion, spirituality, symbolism and the arts will be called to bear in our studies and discussions. We will define, examine and discuss the relevance of concepts such as monotheism, henotheism, polytheism, pantheism, panentheism, shamanism, and animism to our primary question. As major contributors to the theological debate over religious unity, the pluralist hypothesis of John Hick, the perennialist concept of a « transcendent unity of religions » and Whitehead's "Philosophy of organism" will be explained, examined and debated, as will contemporary objections to those concepts in academic, Christian and Muslim theological circles. We will pay particular attention to the specificity of Buddhism as a non-theistic religion, and the challenges posed by its concepts to the very notion of religion. Finally the concept of universality as applied to the diversity of faiths will be envisaged within the theological confines of Islam and Christianity, and various interpretations of this concept in each tradition will be examined and discussed.