Religions as a source of (dis)order

J Urbaniak

doi:10.4314/actat.v35i2.10

Abstract

Would it be fair to say that religious people in general are more suspicious of the believers of other religions than of those who claim to have no faith at all? If the pivotal role of religiosity consists in bringing meaning and order to human life, why should different religions see their respective “orders” as threatening one another? Isn’t it possible to trust in the midst of the multi-ordered reality of world faiths while acknowledging the presence (in all religions) of the untruth despite all the truth? This paper seeks to explore those and similar questions by means of elaborating on religions as potential contributors to a global ecumenism. Building upon insights of Charles Taylor and Hans Kung, I show in what sense the world religions can be considered the source of order as well as disorder and how the plurality of religiouslybased “orders” can be accepted and embraced with trust rather than suspicion.

Highlights

I make a brief against the ‘closure’ of the confessional faiths, against allowing them to close the circle of faith, to slam shut the doors of faith from the intrusions of other faiths... to keep faith behind closed doors, safe and secure (Caputo 2001: 35-36)
Isolated examples of religious intolerance based on a deep-rooted prejudice or perhaps traces of something more, namely a cross-cultural tendency among religious believers to approach the representatives of other traditions with an a priori mistrust? But if the latter is true, what does it say about our understanding of religion qua religion? These initial questions led me to pondering the paradox of religiousorder
If the pivotal role of religiosity consists in providing a basic orientation, in bringing meaning and order to human life, why should different religions see their respective ‘orders’ as competing or even as threatening one another? Isn’t it possible to trust in the midst of the multi-ordered reality of world faiths while acknowledging the presence of the untruth despite all the truth? (Küng, van Ess, von Stietencron & Bechert 1986: xix)

Summary

Introduction

I make a brief against the ‘closure’ of the confessional faiths, against allowing them to close the circle of faith, to slam shut the doors of faith from the intrusions of other faiths... to keep faith behind closed doors, safe and secure (Caputo 2001: 35-36). Building upon insights of Charles Taylor and Hans Küng, I intend to show in what sense the world religions can be considered the source of order as well as disorder and how the plurality of religiously-based “orders” can be accepted and embraced with trust rather than suspicion.

Results

Conclusion