There is a tendency among fundamentalists and evangelicals to reject every tenant of another religion simply because the other religions affirms it. In other words, “if our competition says it’s true, it must be false.” However, this cannot be the case. Islam affirms that God is merciful and all-powerful. Many evangelicals say that Islam worships a different God than we do. Well, how many all-powerful, merciful Gods can there be? Isn’t it simpler to say that we may have a different interpretation of the One God rather than denying their God altogether? Certainly, we do not want to deny that our God is one, all powerful and merciful, and we cannot deny that Muslims so affirm their God to be.
“All truth is God’s truth” is a “truism”. In other words, no matter where truth is found, if it is real, a reflection of that which exists, then we must affirm it. If we find truth about reality or God or whatever in science or in other religions, then we must affirm it. And if we can work together on the truth we affirm, then why shouldn’t we? If we find, as Bible-based Christians, that we should rule the earth with compassion toward all creatures, then why can we not work with Buddhists and environmentalists who have that same goal. We don’t have to agree with their metaphysics or their theology to work together in this one goal.
So Karen Armstrong affirms that all the major world religions have compassion in common. I want to look at that, as we read her book, but if that is a given, then why can we not affirm that? Why can we not work together with other religions on aspects of compassion? Even as many religions can work together to affirm human life, whether in the womb or children in danger of war or slavery, why can we not work together in other aspects of compassion, or even affirming compassion together?
A good goal is worth working together on, even if we might disagree on other ideals.
If you are interested in some new ideas on ecumenism and the Trinity, please check out my website at www.religiouspluralism.ca, and give me your thoughts on improving content and presentation.
ReplyDeleteMy thesis is that an abstract version of the Trinity could be Christianity’s answer to the world need for a framework of pluralistic theology.
In a constructive worldview: east, west, and far-east religions present a threefold understanding of One God manifest primarily in Muslim and Hebrew intuition of the Deity Absolute, Christian and Krishnan Hindu conception of the Universe Absolute Supreme Being; and Shaivite Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist apprehension of the Destroyer (meaning also Consummator), Unconditioned Absolute, or Spirit of All That Is and is not. Together with their variations and combinations in other major religions, these religious ideas reflect and express our collective understanding of God, in an expanded concept of the Holy Trinity.
The Trinity Absolute is portrayed in the logic of world religions, as follows:
1. Muslims and Jews may be said to worship only the first person of the Trinity, i.e. the existential Deity Absolute Creator, known as Allah or Yhwh, Abba or Father (as Jesus called him), Brahma, and other names; represented by Gabriel (Executive Archangel), Muhammad and Moses (mighty messenger prophets), and others.
2. Christians and Krishnan Hindus may be said to worship the first person through a second person, i.e. the experiential Universe or "Universal” Absolute Supreme Being (Allsoul or Supersoul), called Son/Christ or Vishnu/Krishna; represented by Michael (Supreme Archangel), Jesus (teacher and savior of souls), and others. The Allsoul is that gestalt of personal human consciousness, which we expect will be the "body of Christ" (Mahdi, Messiah, Kalki or Maitreya) in the second coming – personified in history by Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Buddha (9th incarnation of Vishnu), and others.
3. Shaivite Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucian-Taoists seem to venerate the synthesis of the first and second persons in a third person or appearance, ie. the Destiny Consummator of ultimate reality – unqualified Nirvana consciousness – associative Tao of All That Is – the absonite* Unconditioned Absolute Spirit “Synthesis of Source and Synthesis,”** who/which is logically expected to be Allah/Abba/Brahma glorified in and by union with the Supreme Being – represented in religions by Gabriel, Michael, and other Archangels, Mahadevas, Spiritpersons, etc., who may be included within the mysterious Holy Ghost.
Other strains of religion seem to be psychological variations on the third person, or possibly combinations and permutations of the members of the Trinity – all just different personality perspectives on the Same God. Taken together, the world’s major religions give us at least two insights into the first person of this thrice-personal One God, two perceptions of the second person, and at least three glimpses of the third.
* The ever-mysterious Holy Ghost or Unconditioned Spirit is neither absolutely infinite, nor absolutely finite, but absonite; meaning neither existential nor experiential, but their ultimate consummation; neither fully ideal nor totally real, but a middle path and grand synthesis of the superconscious and the conscious, in consciousness of the unconscious.
** This conception is so strong because somewhat as the Absonite Spirit is a synthesis of the spirit of the Absolute and the spirit of the Supreme, so it would seem that the evolving Supreme Being may himself also be a synthesis or “gestalt” of humanity with itself, in an Almighty Universe Allperson or Supersoul. Thus ultimately, the Absonite is their Unconditioned Absolute Coordinate Identity – the Spirit Synthesis of Source and Synthesis – the metaphysical Destiny Consummator of All That Is.
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Samuel Stuart Maynes