Religious Diversity, Christian Faith, and Truth

Abstract

Having explained the idea of God that is common to most religious traditions, this chapter moves on to provide a preliminary understanding of the foundational Christian experience of God. Prior to that I argue that nature mysticism is not the only kind of mysticism that is natural to human beings; events of life (event mysticism) as well as inter-personal relations (person-mysticism) can also be the loci of experiencing the divine. Diversity of religions is explained in terms of the institutionalization of such diverse experiences. Christian experience is taken as an instance of person-mysticism where the disciples of Jesus experience the divine in the person of Jesus. The second half of this chapter takes up justification of religious beliefs. The grammatical rules of religion explored in the last chapter is used for the purpose and applied to show the divinity of Jesus. Finally, over and above the grammatical rules common to different religions, some additional grammatical rules that constitute Christian faith are set forth. Thus the book ends on a genuinely pluralistic note by weaving a rainbow of religious faiths that respects both commonalities as well as differences between religions.