WPost / July 8, 2010 _Stephen Prothero_ (http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/stephen_prothero/) Prothero is a Professor in the Department of Religion at Boston University and the author of numerous books on American religion.
God is not One, and neither are the religions 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? I have been known to change my mind on occasion, but I am going to stick to my guns on this one. With all due deference to Armstrong and Smith and the Dalai Lama (not to mention Gandhi and Ramakrishna and many of the great mystics), I have to insist that the world's religions differ, and differ fundamentally. They address very different problems and propose very different solutions. They affirm different truths, practice different rituals, tell different stories, follow different leaders, and maintain different institutions. As I argued in _God is Not One_ (http://www.harpercollins.com/books/God-Not-One-Stephen-Prothero/?isbn=9780061571275) , Christians do not go on the hajj to Mecca and Muslims do not profess their faith in the Trinity. Anyone who says otherwise is not paying attention, and anyone who says such differences do not matter is condescending. The hajj may not matter to philosophers of religious unity, but it matters to ordinary Muslims. In fact, it is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. And the Trinity matters to ordinary Christians. In fact, it provides the outline for the all-important Nicene Creed. I know that persons of goodwill are supposed to pretend that the world's religions are different paths up the same mountain. To say otherwise is to invite religious warfare and to label yourself illiberal. But we can do better than pretend pluralism. True pluralism does not insist on remaking Islam in the image of Christianity or Christianity in the image of Islam. It recognizes the deep diversity across the great religions and inside each of them. Whenever anyone tells me all religions are different paths up the same mountain, I ask them what stands at the peak. Not surprisingly, they tell me different things. What unites the religions is belief in God, some say. Others say the unity of God and humanity lies at the heart of each. Still others insist that the apex of all religions is compassion. So even among religious lumpers we find religious diversity. Moreover, in every case we see thinkers unwittingly remaking other religions in their own image. Should we be surprised that the Dalai Lama, whose own religion emphasizes compassion (karuna) finds that virtue at the peak of the world's religions? Should we be surprised that Huston Smith, whose own religion emphasizes monotheism (albeit in Trinitarian form), finds the one God there? But God is not one. Or to put it more carefully, the world's religions differ on matters as central as the mathematics of divinity. Many Buddhists affirm zero gods, and many Hindus affirm many. Moreover, the character of divinity varies widely from god to god. No infant would mistake Hinduism's Kali for Christianity's Christ. Why should we? Perhaps I am missing something, but I have yet to find a view of interreligious unity that does not reek of colonialism and empire. And as long as we insist on the dogma that all religions are essentially the same we are bound to imagine that all religions are essentially like our own. This approach blinds us to the unique beauty in each religion, and prevents us from making sense of religious conflict worldwide. Never has interreligious dialogue been more crucial than it is today. But ideologies of religious sameness impoverish and straitjacket us, turning so-called interreligious dialogue into monologue--an echo-chamber among like minded-religious liberals. Those new atheists who say all religions are the same and bad are wrong. So are the perennialists who say all religions are the same and good. What we need today is an approach to the world's religions that recognizes the good and the bad in each, and the differences as well as the similarities. Only then can we hope to make sense of a world in which these rival religions play such a powerful role. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
