‘Byrne’s’ religious pluralism

Author: Mawson, T.

Source: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Volume 58, Number 1, August 2005 , pp. 37-54(18)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

“(1) All major religious traditions are equal in respect of making common reference to a single transcendent sacred reality. (2) All major traditions are likewise equal in respect of offering some means or other to human salvation. (3) All traditions are to be seen as containing revisable, limited, accounts of the nature of the sacred none is certain enough in its particular dogmatic formulations to provide the norm for interpreting the others.” P. Byrne, Prolegomena to Religious Pluralism (NY: Macmillan, 1995), p. 12. In this paper, I argue that of the three claims that constitute the form of Religious Pluralism outlined by Peter Byrne in his Prolegomena to Religious Pluralism, the first is something proponents of the theory can’t think of themselves as having the resources to defend; the second is something that is in danger of being rendered trivial by the definition of religions offered; however, if one makes it non-trivial, it becomes implausible (and offering a defence of it inconsistent with other elements of the theory); and, even if the first half of the third is right, the second half is wrong.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11153-005-6465-2

Affiliations: 1: St Peter’s College, Oxford, Email: tim.mawson@philosophy.ox.ac.uk

Publication date: 2005-08-01