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On Faith - Exclusivists vs Pluralists: Very Different Paths to One Truth
Minneapolis, MN (July 8, 2010) - As a regularly featured blogger on the Washington Post/Newsweek's "On Faith" blog, Dr. Aseem Shukla, member of HAF's Board of Directors, has the opportunity to provide a Hindu viewpoint on various issues. Below is Dr. Shukla's latest blog. Please post your comments directly on the "On Faith" site by clicking here.
Q: Are all religions the same? The Dalai Lama, who just celebrated his 75th birthday, often refers to the 'oneness' of all religions, the idea that all religions preach the same message of love, tolerance and compassion. Historians Karen Armstrong and Huston Smith agree that major faiths are more alike than not. But in his new book "God is not One," religion scholar and On Faith panelist Steve Prothero says views by the Dalai Lama, Armstrong and Smith that all religions "are different paths to the same God" is untrue, disrespectful and dangerous. Who's right? Why?
The question posed here on On Faith posits a fundamental dichotomy between the contentions of the Dalai Lama and Prof. Stephen Prothero--whether sameness or schisms characterize the dialog of religions. Is the morally comforting depiction of religions as winding paths to the same goal a vacuous metaphor or does Prothero's thesis hark uncomfortably to the hand wringing over another Bostonian's prognostication of a Clash of Civilizations?
The devil here is in the careful parsing not of the words, but the holy intent of His Holiness. Hinduism and the Dalai Lama's Buddhism, as Dharmic traditions, readily grasp the mantle of pluralism. Pluralism for these faiths means not that all religions are essentially the same; pluralism simply replaces an exclusivist claim that mine is the only path with an acceptance that while my path is the best for me, others may find the same spiritual fulfillment using a different road map.
It is the dialect of faith that is so radically different between Dharmic faiths and the Abrahamic exclusivists. Dharma pluralists speak with the serene security of those that have found their way--the Truth--and share their transcendent visions of an expansive conciousness through the medium of meditation, devotional worship, yoga and holistic living. Theirs is not a message of fear or damnation and, necessarily, not one of coercion.
The pluralist's words of "love, tolerance and compassion" should not, however, be interpreted as a facile claim of sameness. A Hindu or a Buddhist will insist that faith is a personal, inward journey, but each is substantively different. Still, while a Buddhist's denial of a Supreme Being may clash with Hindu schools that profess a belief in a personal God, conflicts today are scarce due to a pluralist theology that binds them.
Contrasts between these pluralists and Abrahamic faiths are stark, however. Where pluralists encourage sincere adherence to one's own chosen faith while discouraging conversion or even cafeteria style cherry-picking of bits here and there, evangelicals and proselytizers of Abrahamic faiths require conformity insisting that theirs is the only one with any legitimacy. Rather than emphasizing the love and compassion between traditions, they are more likely to warn of hell, damnation or death for those not in their fold.
This Abrahamic perspective is pervasive in America, of course, and manifests often unexpectedly. A recent news article explaining the South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley's Sikh heritage offered a tortured explanation of Sikhism. "Its followers, called Sikhs, believe in reincarnation, gender equality and one God, but not the Christian God," it said. Would a Christian really suggest that a Sikh or Hindu God is different than a Christian God...who really is the polytheist by this equation? Such a distinction would never be entertained by the pluralist.
Dharmic and Abrahamic faiths (at least in their institutionalized forms) differ also in what they aspire to beyond this life. Salvation is the culmination of intense spiritual practices in Dharma traditions with saints and scriptures serving as guides, rather than the purely afterlife promise of rewards--it may be the promise of family members gone before or even virgins--based on a strict adherence to a faith and its rules.
However, the mystical traditions of all Abrahamic faiths--the Sufis of Islam, the Christian Quietists or Jewish Kabbalah--have also pursued spiritual paths very similar to dharmic faiths and independent of the institutions of the religions. It is such spirituality that is very similar to the practice of dharmic faiths, lacking institutions to enforce a theology, that inspires the "all religions are same" platitudes. Our own views as a nation, meanwhile, are yearning for this same spirituality, rejecting the shackles of prescriptions and proscriptions in matters of faith.
Prothero is absolutely right that all religions are not the same, but the Dalai Lama chooses to believe that an absolute adherence to the eternal Golden Rule that underlies the great religions when stripped down to their core--treat others as you would wish to be treated--will necessarily steady the mind, reduce material wants, induce selfless service and fill one with peace and serenity. What more should anyone want from religion?
Views expressed here are the personal views of Dr. Aseem Shukla and do not necessarily represent those of the Hindu American Foundation or the University of Minnesota.