ext_171624 ([identity profile] qatar.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] qatarperegrine 2005-06-08 10:40 am (UTC)

"Unlike the Noahide laws and Judaism, most any other religion 'that respects itself' includes and exclusivity clause. ;-)"

Diana Eck divides the possible viewpoints a religious person can have on other religions into three types: exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist. An exclusivist stance says, "There is no truth/salvation/whatever outside my tradition." An inclusivist says, "There is truth in other traditions, but it's my tradition's truth." And a pluralist says, "Truth is independent of any of these traditions." The example she gives is actually one from the Jewish perspective: a rabbi in a Chaim Potok novel asks, about a Shinto in prayer, "Do you think our God is listening to him?" An exclusivist says "No"; an inclusivist says, "Yes, but it's still God as we conceptualize God who is doing the listening," and a pluralist says "God isn't 'ours' in the first place."

So, that is all background in order to say: I think there are exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist tendencies in every religion. Judaism has less of an exclusivist tendency than most, but in any religious tradition there are people all along the spectrum.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting