The Problem of Religious Pluralism

Abstract

Much of the current discussion in the philosophy of religion concerning religious pluralism has resulted from the continuing revelations by the social sciences of the tremendous diversity among the belief systems of different peoples of the world. The development of the social sciences in the early part of the twentieth century and the ever increasing expanse and variety of data from the study of other cultures have resulted from technological innovations in both communication and transportation. The study of cultures that were once remote, unknown, or inaccessible is now commonplace, and the results are available, through television, video, and the print media, on a scale that has certainly been unequaled before in human history. The diversity of different peoples takes many forms, both ethnic and cultural, and the plethora of different religious practices and beliefs now known to exist among peoples of the world has naturally given rise to many questions about if and how such diverse beliefs systems might be related.KeywordsReligious TraditionReligious ExperienceCausal TheoryReligious DiversityPhenomenal ExperienceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.