Pluralistic Theology Research Articles

A Theology of Religions in the United Church of Canada: A Journey

[Figure: see text] The study of missionary involvement, whole-world ecumenism, and the dance of theological inclusivism and pluralism has been the United Church of Canada’s journey of love to mend the world. We live in a multicultural world, in a time of secularism and spiritual skepticism, attempting to hold our own beliefs while face to face with other religious traditions. The religious pluralism of our time presents theological challenges causing us to reassess what we all believe about God. This article argues that although there is no formal theology of religions in the United Church, there has been a theological move in this Church’s understanding of mission and of ecumenism that caused the Church to evolve from an exclusivist to an inclusivist theology while dancing toward theological pluralism along the way. This shift was a response to the culture’s changing social, political, and moral attitudes from the 1940s to the 1960s. The World Mission report (1966) stated that the United Church believes that God is creatively and redemptively active in the religious life of all humanity. The Articles of Faith, the catechism, A New Creed, a New Curriculum, the Song of Faith, reports, and congregational studies on the Church’s relationships with Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism together demonstrate clearly the theological journey from 1925 and the contextual nature of theology.

Protestant Political Theology and Pluralism: From a Politics of Refusal to Tending and Organizing for Common Goods

Protestant perspectives on pluralism in political theology are predictably plural. While prevalent narratives of modern decline bemoan Protestant pluralism and its ostensive side-effects, others celebrate pluralism as a good in its own right. One aim of this essay is to display the diverse perspectives in Protestant political theology regarding political theology itself, pluralism, secularism, and democracy, while clarifying and refining these terms. I do so by considering each theme in turn. Finally, I consider the ways that religious dissenters of the 1790s defy prominent depictions of Protestantism, even as they exemplify the plurality at its core. The dissenters wed an ancient legacy of reflection on theological virtues such as charity to appeals for human and women’s rights, and suggest that love of country, neighbor, alien and God is central to protestant political theology. Given the plurality inherent in Protestantism, Christianity, and modern democratic societies alike, we have good reasons, I argue, to turn from a politics of refusal to one of tending and organizing for goods shared in common.

A Survey of Old Testament Methodologies and Their Implications for Biblical Studies

Biblical methodologies for Old Testament or New Testament are major elements to which some have called a crisis (Hasel, 1987, p. 9) that cannot be placed at the peripherals of Biblical theological issues. A Biblical theology advocated for, without a methodology, is as good as advocating to drive a vehicle that has no fuel. In this regard, it is plausible therefore to speak of biblical theology and biblical methodologies to establish their identities that seem to be under threat. The meaning of the Biblical text cannot be done without an operational biblical methodology (Correa, 2015). “It is of such transcendence that sometimes the methodology of the research and its resultant definition cause scholars to question whether the method has been well defined” (p. 300). This paper observes that the use of diverse methodologies in the task of Biblical theology attributes to the core of theological pluralism and diverse scholarly views. Furthermore, to understand the distinction between BT and Old Testament methodologies, their interdependence and exclusive nature, is as paramount as the process of doing exegesis on the text. The paper also underscores the dangers of the latent assumptions of the historical critical method in Old Testament methodologies, and affirms the preference methodologies grounded on underpinnings of the historical grammatical approach.

Uma peregrinação advaita ao encontro do outro: o diálogo inter-religioso na obra de Raimon Panikkar

Raimon Panikkar (1918-2010), teólogo e filósofo, nascido em Barcelona, de família cristã-hindu, foi um dos principais expoentes do diálogo inter-religioso. Destaca-se, neste contexto, sua expressão que se tornou célebre: parti cristão, me descobri hindu e retornei budista, sem jamais ter deixado de ser cristão. Em meu retorno, me descobri um melhor cristão. Para entendê-la, compreendemos ser fundamental adentrar o sentido de advaita (adualidade). A forma como a perspectiva védica do advaita está inserida em sua obra e constitui em recurso para a sua concepção do diálogo inter-religioso é o tema principal desta pesquisa. O autor desenvolveu importantes conceitos ao longo de sua obra e podemos identificar não só uma influência, mas uma referência clara à tradição hindu e, mais propriamente, à perspectiva advaita, tantas vezes mencionada por ele e que identificamos como uma espécie de fio condutor ou de fator explicativo para muitas de suas teorias. Esta pesquisa procura investigar de que forma o advaita se constitui em caminho de construção do diálogo inter-religioso nas obras de Panikkar. Para tal, contextualizamos a perspectiva advaita nas origens do Hinduísmo e a sua utilização por parte do autor, a partir de uma análise crítica do pensamento filosófico ocidental, em sua experiência mística, também definida por ele como experiência da Vida. Analisamos suas teorias da visão trinitária e cosmoteândrica, baseadas na Trindade cristã, o seu conceito de cristologia nomeado de cristofania e o desenvolvimento de uma atitude pluralista, que servirá como base para o diálogo inter-religioso em sua obra, a partir do paradigma pluralista da Teologia do Pluralismo Religioso. E identificamos o advaita na construção do que ele entende por diálogo intra-religioso, o encontro do outro em si mesmo, através do que denomina amor advaita. Uma peregrinação que acontece na interioridade do ser humano, paralelamente ao diálogo inter-religioso. Trata-se de uma pesquisa teórica, através de uma perspectiva metodológica crítico-analítica, tendo em vista a sua aplicação no diálogo inter-religioso, embasadas na bibliografia de Panikkar, mas também na de alguns autores que dialogam, criticam e/ou servem como referência para ele.

Moral Controversy and Working with Colleagues with a Shared Ethical/Moral Outlook: A National Survey of US Primary Care Physicians.

This study assesses physicians' attitudes on the importance of working with colleagues who share the same ethical or moral outlook regarding morally controversial healthcare practices and examines the association of physicians' religious and spiritual characteristics with these attitudes. We conducted a secondary data analysis of a 2009 national survey that was administered to a stratified random sample of 1504 US primary care physicians (PCPs). In that dataset, physicians were asked: "For you personally, how important is it to work with colleagues who share your ethical/moral outlook regarding morally controversial health care practices?" We examined associations between physicians' religious/spiritual characteristics and their attitudes toward having a shared ethical/moral outlook with colleagues. Among eligible respondents, the response rate was 63% (896/1427). Overall, 69% of PCPs indicated that working with colleagues who share their ethical/moral outlook regarding morally controversial healthcare practices was either very important (23%) or somewhat important (46%). Physicians who were more religious were more likely than nonreligious physicians to report that a shared ethical/moral outlook was somewhat/very important to them (P < 0.001 for all measures of religiosity, including religious affiliation, attendance at religious services, intrinsic religiosity, and importance of religion as well as spirituality). Physicians with a high sense of calling were more likely than those with a low sense of calling to report a high importance of having a shared ethical/moral outlook with colleagues regarding morally controversial healthcare practices (multivariate odds ratio 2.5, 95% confidence interval 1.5-4.1). In this national study of PCPs, physicians who identified as religious, spiritual, or having a high sense of calling were found to place a stronger emphasis on the importance of shared ethical/moral outlook with work colleagues regarding morally controversial healthcare practices. Moral controversy in health care may pose a particular challenge for physicians with lower commitments to theological pluralism.

Cult books revisited: John Hick’s God and the Universe of Faiths

This article provides an account of John Hick’s first expression of his pluralist theology of religions as he presented it in God and the Universe of Faiths (1973). Attention is focused on the reasons that he believes justify regarding the different religions as independent sources of revelation and salvation and on their assessment.

Pluralism and the Roots of Social Conflict: Rethinking Rawls

Attempts to refine or update definitions of pluralism in political theology and philosophy often, implicitly or explicitly, entail an account of the roots of social conflict, which pluralism is meant to address. Using the influential work of John Rawls as a starting point I further investigate the idea that the root of social conflict stems from competing beliefs systems. I conclude that Rawls’s account of social conflict is insufficiently complex, intersectional, or historicist, and his theory of pluralism and his treatment of religion suffer because of this.

TEOLOGI PLURALIS: Studi Living Islam di Dusun Gunung Sari, Sambirejo, Prambanan, Sleman, Yogyakarta

Although large-scale religious conflicts such as the Ambon and Poso cases have ended, it does not mean that Indonesia has been able to get out of the danger zone of violence, which is based on religion. One of the latent dangers of religious-based violence can be found in Gunung Sari, Sambirejo, Prambanan, Sleman, Yogyakarta, in which there are three Islamic groups: NU, Muhammadiyah, and Islam-Tawheed. Each group member has a different view, from religious rituals to their social interactions, even physical conflicts have occurred between them. For this reason, we are inte- rested in doing research as well as living there. Based on our research, it was found that no longer true of what Ahmad Salehudin had described in his previous research, today they appreciate religious differences and views about religion among them. Slowly but surely, they have practiced a pluralist theology (living Islam).

The Contribution of Christology to Dealing with Moral Pluralism

Although moral pluralism is ancient, we have gained a more accurate conscience of its complexity, which is related to cultural, methodological, and theological factors. This paper argues that an intimate relation with the person of Jesus Christ helps Christian ethics to serve the unity of faith in the diversity of cultural and social contexts. Christ being “the concrete universal,” he inaugurates a task of reconciliation between the particular and the universal in ethics. In early Christianity, moral pluralism was overshadowed by theological pluralism and the fear for losing the unity of the Church. But with the foundation of European universities in the thirteenth century, the emergence of disputations among theologians fostered a more sensitive approach to the diversity of morals in Scripture, and of habits informed by natural reason. The Protestant Reformation increased moral pluralism, because of divergent interpretations of the Bible within Christianity, in which Christology played a leading role. In front of modern philosophy and totalitarianism, D. Bonhoeffer made Christology the linchpin of Christian ethics: “In Jesus Christ, he claimed, the divine reality has entered that of this world.” Reacting against the juridical approach of Catholic moral theology, B. H&auml;ring reintroduced the figure of Christ in the centre of moral theology, presenting Him as the Life-giver acting through his sacraments. More recently, W. Spohn renewed the vision of Christology’s normative role in Christian ethics, by relating it to the biblical sources, to the ecclesial context of interpretation, and to the anthropological function of reading that shapes the community, called to analogical imagination in following Christ. In a cross-cultural perspective, the more Christian ethics investigates the concrete, the more it is induced to base its reasoning on Christ’s life and teaching, reminding that his unique ministry was open to the universal in the merciful way he addressed concrete persons and concrete issues.비록 도덕적 다원주의가 오래되었다고 하더라도, 우리는 문화적, 방법론적, 그리고 신학적 요소들과 관련된 다원주의의 복잡성에 대해 보다 정밀한 양심을 획득해 왔다. 본고는 예수 그리스도의 인격과의 친밀한 관계는 그리스도교 윤리로 하여금 다양한 문화적, 사회적 맥락에서의 신앙의 일치에 일조하게 하는 데에 도움이 된다는 점을 논한다. 그리스도는 “구체적인 보편적 실재”이기에, 윤리에서의 특수성과 보편성 사이를 중재하는 역할을 한다. 초기 그리스도교에서, 도덕적 다원주의는 신학적 다원주의와 교회의 일치를 상실할 것이라는 두려움에 의해 빛을 발하지 못했다. 그러나 13세기 유럽 대학들의 설립과 함께, 신학자들 사이에서의 토론(disputatio)이 등장함으로써 성경에 존재하는 도덕의 다양성과 자연적 이성에 의해 알려진 습관들의 다양성에 대한 섬세한 접근이 가속화되었다. 프로테스탄트의 종교개혁은 도덕적 다원주의를 증대시켰는데, 이는 그리스도교 성경 해석에 대한 다른 해석들 때문이다. 여기에서 그리스도론은 주도적인 역할을 수행한다. 현대 철학과 전체주의에 직면하여 본회퍼(D. Bonhoeffer)는 그리스도교 윤리학의 핵심으로 그리스도론을 제시했다. 그는 “예수 그리스도 안에서, 신성한 실재가 세상의 현실에 들어왔다”고 주장한다. 가톨릭 도덕신학의 법률적인 접근에 대항하여, 헤링(B. Haring)은 그리스도의 표상을 도덕신학의 중심에 다시 도입하여 예수 그리스도를 성사들을 통해서 활동하시는, 생명을 주시는 분으로 표현했다. 보다 최근에 스폰(W. Spohn)은 그리스도교 윤리학에 있어 성경적 원천들, 교회적 해석의 맥락, 그리고 공동체를 이루는 인류학적 독해 기능과 연관하여 그리스도론의 규범적 역할에 대한 전망을 새롭게 했다. 비교문화적인 관점에서, 그리스도교 윤리학이 구체적인 것들을 조사하면 할수록 그리스도의 생애와 가르침에 기초를 두어야 한다는 사실이 부각되며, 이는 그리스도의 고유한 직무가 구체적인 사람들과 사안들을 다루는 자비로운 방법으로써 모든 이들에게 열려 있었음을 상기시킨다.

Verdad divina y lenguaje humano

In this work the author presents the positive doctrine on the four principal problems which are intimately related with the theme "divine truth and human language". He uses a method which is both positive and speculative and follows the main documents of the Magisterium, especially those of Pope Paul VI, step by step. At the same time he outlines the internal reasoning which is the basis of the teaching of the Magisterium on this matter. In the first part which is entitled "our knowledge of revealed truth", the author answers the following question: how can we have objective knowledge, although in a limited form, of revealed truth which we receive in human terms and concepts? He highlights the need to have recourse to the analogy of being and of human cognition, and subsequently points out the step from the "analogia entis" to the "analogia fidei". The author shows clearly that not all philosophical frameworks are suitable receptacles for divine Revelation and that certain claims of "theological pluralism" are in the last analysis cases of pluralism in matters of faith. Foreseeing the possibility of timeworn accusations he analyzes the attitude of the Magisterium towards aristotelian philosophy, St Thomas' philosophy and towards philosophy in general. The second part, entitled "the truth of the infallible formulae of the Magisterium", establishes the classical distinction between the terms used by the Church and meaning which she has given to same. He recalls the need for christians to speak "juxta certam regulam loquendi" (St. Augustin). The conclusion is that the formulae of faith, with the meaning given to them by the Magisterium, are true and immutable, and are suitable for expressing the truth to all men in all times. He naturally analyzes the text of Pope John's discourse on the opening of the 2nd Vatican Council, on the bases of the authentic interpretation given by Paul VI and the declaration "Mysterium Ecclesiae". In the third part, entitled "the connexion between basis and form", he strives to solve the problems caused by the proponents of the structuralist theory who strip language of all objective meaning. The author distinguishes between structuralism as a method, pointing out its limits as a method, and the way structuralism is abused by some exegetes and historians of dogma. He makes brief reference to a related topic; that of the more correct translation of the words of St Vincent of Lerins, which have been frequently used by the Magisterium (sed in suo duntaxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu, eademque sententia). In the fourth part he analyzes the theme "as close as possible to the truth revealed". He recalls the distinction between chronological proximity and cognitive proximity, which some authors ignore. He then shows how greater authenticity is not restricted to primitive texts of greater chronological proximity, but rather, given the charisma of inspiration, the homogeneous development of Dogma and the infallible assistance which the Magisterium enjoys, he shows how in fact the opposite in the case: the later expressions are as authentic as the earlier, and as well as that the later ones are more explicit and more complete gnoseologically.

Practicing What It Preaches? Understanding the Contradictions between Pluralist Theology and Religious Intolerance within Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama

The Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has long been known for its moderate, pluralist theology. However, many grassroot NU clerics and activists do not pay attention to these pluralist teachings. Instead, they carried out attacks and religious persecutions against religious minorities such as the Ahmadi and Shi’ite communities in Indonesia. It is puzzling to see a big contradiction between the pluralist theological beliefs articulated by some of NU’s senior clerics and the religiously intolerant actions conducted by many of its clerics and activists against religious minorities at a grassroot level. Using insights from social movement theory, this article argues that the roots of such contradictions can be traced back to NU’s organizational structure, which is decentralized and leave ultimate theological authority with local clerics who run their own Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and issue their own theological interpretations and rulings (fatwa) that are being obeyed by their students and followers.[NU telah lama dikenal berteologi moderat dan pluralis. Meskipun demikian, ulama dan aktifis akar rumput kurang memperhatikan ajaran pluralis tersebut. Bahkan sebagian dari mereka justru terlibat dalam penyerangan dan persekusi kelompok minoritas seperti Ahmadiyah dan Shiah di Indonesia. Hal ini cukup membingungkan dan kontradiktif antara artikulasi pemikiran pluralis tokoh senior NU dengan tindakan intoleran yang dilakukan pengikut NU di level akar rumput. Dengan pendekatan teori gerakan sosial, artikel ini menjelaskan kontradiksi tersebut dengan melacak akarnya pada struktur organisasi NU yang terdesentralisasi dan otoritas teologi berbasis ulama lokal yang mempunyai pesantren dan interpretasi keagamaannya sendiri yang dipatuhi oleh santri dan pengikutnya.]

Theology Facing Religious Diversity: The Perspective of Latin American Pluralist Theology

Life is plural and diverse, biodiverse. This reality has always provoked philosophy, the sciences, and also theology. But how does theological thinking reflect on this eco-human diversity? What about religious diversity? Are diversity and pluralism the same phenomenon? These questions express the aim of this article: to reflect on theology in the face of diversity and pluralism. With the methodology of bibliographic analysis, the article begins by discussing the challenges of this reality. Then it deals with how theology confronts diversity and pluralism. In the end, it reflects on the possibility of Latin American Liberation Theology being conceived as pluralist, articulating itself with the Theology of Religious Pluralism—especially from the 1990s. One of the exponents of the Latin American Liberation Theology that justifies such a paradigm shift is the theologian Leonardo Boff. With his outputs, Latin American theology starts to realize, from the ecological paradigm, the articulation between liberation and dialogue, then being called pluralistic liberation theology. The conclusions of the article point out that cultural change, the ecological paradigm and, recently, the questions of decolonial theology, have led theological thinking to transform more, facing the socio-environmental challenges of diversity, conflicts, and interreligious dialogue, accepting even more the awareness of pluralism.

‘Who’s Afraid of Secularisation?’ A Response to David Lewin

ABSTRACTThis response to David Lewin states the purpose of my critique of some aspects of Liam Gearon’s work. It clarifies my position on the aims of ‘inclusive’ religious education, rejecting Gearon’s view that REDCo researchers shared a common pluralistic theology, regarding religious education as having a single political aim. It reinforces Gearon’s misrepresentation of the development of the Toledo Guiding Principles. In addressing the concern that religious education serves political ends, I acknowledge that much educational discourse has a political dimension but, in the case of ‘inclusive’ religious education, I argue that an approach based on John Rawls’ view of political liberalism can facilitate understanding of religions. I respond to Lewin’s assumption that my own view of religious language is entirely propositional and I compare the view of religious language expressed by Morimoto, quoted with approval by Lewin, with that of D. Z. Phillips, noting that its adoption implies that religious ‘insiders’ and those with no religious commitments are incapable of mutual understanding. I introduce the interpretive approach as an impartial methodology for religious education. Finally, I invite Lewin to engage with empirical research informing European policy on religious education, relevant to issues of secularity and secularism.

Kritik “INSISTS” Terhadap Gagasan Pluralisme Agama

The theology of religious pluralism presented as a solution to resolve the conflict in a multi-religious society. But this idea is very debatable in the Indonesian Muslim community. One of the groups refuses aloud is a group of young intellectuals who are members of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought and Civilization (INSISTS). This paper describes the arguments used in the INSISTS activists criticized the idea of religious pluralism. Instead of a solution, INSISTS activists assess religious pluralism is a new problem in a multi-religious society. The problem lies in some respects, namely socio-historical context is different between Muslim societies and the West where the first time the idea came, also contains the idea of pluralism rated parallelism religious truth and relativism of truth. The negative side is what makes religious pluralism is not the solution in building harmony in a plural society, but it gave birth to syncretism and relativism of religious truth. INSISTS activists viewed the idea of religious pluralism as a foreign idea that is contrary to Islamic faith and the teachings. Due to the application of the religious pluralism theology in Islam can damage the principal Islamic faith and teachings.

Many Tongues, Many Buddhisms in a Pluralistic World: A Christian Interpretation at the Interreligious Crossroads

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)PERRY SCHMIDT-LEUKEL, even if limited to only his English-language publications,1 has done more than anyone else to document the range of Buddhist responses to religions.2 His own pluralist theology of not only accommodates such facets of pluralistic world but perhaps also motivates his efforts to record and understand them. I would like to suggest an alternative pneumatological approach to the theology of that may accomplish much of what the pluralist model achieves but yet bypasses what for some critics remain formidable challenges. Simultaneously, my pneumatological perspective, when focused on the variety of Buddhist views of and engagements with religious others, also invites adjustment in Christian attitudes and approaches to people of faiths. I begin with Buddhist diversity vis-a-vis religious pluralism, and then-in the longest section of this article-I present my pneumatological response (in dialogue with Schmidt-Leukel), and end with implications for Christian practice in pluralist world.3Buddhism and the Religions: A Plurality of ResponsesTo be clear, the four volumes and over 1,400 pages of Schmidt-Leukel's recent publication (2013) barely begin to catalogue the diversity of Buddhist responses to pluralism. Even essays depicting six Buddhist attitudes toward religions and then explicating five types of Buddhist only introduce the plurality of Buddhist attitudes to, assessments of, and interactions with religious others (Chappell 1990, in brd 4.10-24; Kiblinger 2003, in brd 4.25-45; and see, for example, Kiblinger 2005). what follows, I selectively highlight some historical-political perspectives and then unfold mostly what might be called Buddhist exclusivisms and inclusivisms regarding religions.4 The discussion of course cannot pretend to be exhaustive, but will merely give an overview of some of the major issues at the interreligious crossroads, at least as refracted through my own biases and interests.5To adopt, at least initially, more historical approach is to be introduced, from the beginning, to many Buddhist approaches to religious otherness. Obviously, this includes not only the fact that the of the Buddha emerged in the pluralistic field of sixth century Vedic and Brahmanic India, but also that variety of interpretations and understandings can be observed as lodged at the very heart of this primordial sequence of events from its inception so that other religions discourse in the early literature include as much intra-Buddhist disputes and contestations as those directed outward to others (Freiberger 2011, in brd 4.46-56)/ Then, if we shift to the next millennium and onto the East Asian space where Buddhism flourished (as opposed to the South Asian land of its origins where it was subsumed if not almost swallowed up by Indic traditions), we find it is better described in terms of waxing and waning according to its integration into or marginalization from the political centers of civilization.7 From this perspective, we can appreciate how the more mature expressions of the tradition feature efforts to integrate religious, philosophical, and cultural aspects of the Chinese context within predominantly Buddhist framework.8Yet of course Buddhist dominance has not always persisted, and the periods in which its practitioners have found themselves in threatened situations, for various reasons, have triggered their most vigorous, even exclusivistic, responses. The four selections focused on Buddhism in Japan highlight some of the precipitating factors. Thus the well-known exclusivism of the Kamakura (1185-1333) monk Nichiren (1222-1282) emerges as a unifying force and strategy of legitimation in the context of the Mongol invasion so that, In Nichiren's eyes, it had been slander of the Dharma-rejection of the Lotus Sutra-that had brought Japan to the brink of destruction by the Mongols (Stone 1994, in brd 4. …

The influence of spirituality and religiosity on the personal use and practice patterns with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): A national survey of US oncologists.

248 Background: Although cancer patients frequently use CAM, it is uncertain how oncologists’ spirituality and religiosity impact their decisions to use or recommend CAM with their patients. Methods: A US probability sample of 1,000 ASCO members was contacted by mail and email to complete a survey regarding clinical approaches to herb and supplement (HS) use by cancer patients. Results: Of 927 deliverable surveys, 423 surveys were returned for a response rate of 46%. Respondents were mostly men (72%), Caucasian (76%), with a median age of 48. Approximately 16% reported no religion, 19% Jewish, 24% Catholic, 28% Christian, and 13% other religions. Eighteen percent reported attending religious services at least once a week including 15% who attend several times per week. Twenty-eight percent reported high theological pluralism (skepticism regarding whether one religion is the only true religion). Fifty-eight percent self-described themselves as very or moderately spiritual. Univariate analyses indicated significant correlations with self-reported spirituality and religious service attendance and the likelihood of personal CAM use, recommending any CAM, and recommending HS. In multivariate analyses, predictors of personal CAM use were: female gender (OR = 5.6, CI 0.09-0.37), non-Caucasian (OR = 3.0, CI 0.16-0.70), educated in HS (OR = 2.6, CI 1.37-5.08), attending religious services less than monthly (OR = 3.0, CI 0.17-0.65), and self –reported high or moderate spirituality (OR = 3.2, CI 1.5-6.6). Physician predictors for sometimes or often recommending HS were male gender (OR = 1.85, CI 0.92-3.75) and self–reported low spirituality (OR = 2.9, CI, 0.15-0.77). Recommending CAM was associated with female gender (OR = 2.6, CI 0.15-0.97), educated in HS (OR = 3.4, CI 1.46-7.78), and self–reported high or moderate spirituality (OR = 2.8, CI 1.26-6.31). No correlations were found with religious affiliation. Conclusions: This is the first study to identify self-reported spirituality as a significant factor among US oncologists’ decision to use CAM and recommend CAM to patients, and further studies are needed to explore this potential influence.

Pemikiran Hukum Islam dan Epistemologi Teologi Pluralistik

This article aims to examine the contribution of Islamic epistemology in a pluralistic life within increasing social problems that lead to violence in the name of religion. All people agree that the acts of violence in the name of religion was not justified by religions, including Islam. Islam should provide solution for the establishment of peace, tranquility, and serenity in diversity. Therefore, we should understand Islam as a science, so that the act of violence in the name of religion can be reduced through proper understanding. Pluralistic theology has been studied for long review, although not very deeply. This article, accordingly, describes some key terms in understanding the epistemology of pluralistic theology which is expected to contribute to the development of science that can give realistic solution to the problem of violence in the name of religion.

From Liberal Theology toVölkischChristianity? Heinrich Weinel, the Volkskirchenbund, and the Church Struggle in Thuringia

For much of his career, New Testament scholar and systematic theologian Heinrich Weinel promoted theological pluralism, progressive politics, and humanitarian ideals. However, near the end of his life he gave qualified support to the Deutsche Christen, a movement that sought to establish a “German Christianity” informed by Nazi ideology. Examination of Weinel’s published works, unpublished manuscripts, and private correspondence reveals that his support for the Deutsche Christen was a strategic compromise, driven by situational factors and limited ideological affinity rather than a thoroughgoing embrace of volkisch (populist/racist) Christianity. Weinel’s story represents one of many paths to complicity within the German churches during the Third Reich.

Without Boundaries?

Abstract This article systematically derives a common pluralist theology from the works of theologians Roger Haight and Amir Hussain. It then discusses this emergent definition of pluralism through the perspective of intent, an examination of exclusive claims and the historicity of formative context. Finally, potential approaches and areas are outlined, such as revelation, salvation, and historicity, in which a pluralist theology can advance a Theology “Without Walls.”

“Our Loyalties Must Become Ecumenical”: Martin Luther King, Jr., as a Pluralist Theologian

This essay presents how “theologian” and “pluralist” are contested categories in religious-studies scholarship to such a degree that the pluralist theologies of people of color have been thwarted from many ecumenical discourses. While Martin Luther King, Jr.’s credentials as a theologian have been questioned, he should, nevertheless, be interpreted not only as a theologian but also as a pluralist theologian par excellence . To this end, King’s primary sources are used to reconstruct dimensions of his pluralist theology. His pluralist views and values are placed in critical conversation with contemporary pluralism scholarship. It is shown that King’s universal horizon transcended Jewish, Christian, and Muslim relationships. He did not believe in the metaphysical unity of religions. He identified both similar and dissimilar teachings across religions. He preached that Christian and non-Christian traditions provided resources for sharing and learning—especially for ethical values. Overall, King’s ecumenism contributes to debates about ethnocentric biases and admiration for different faiths.