On Wednesday we had a great class discussion on religious pluralisms, or the lack thereof, and examined together six of the mainstream models for how a person of faith might respond internally and externally to the reality that there are multiple religions thriving here in our world. These responses range from absolutism, the belief that there is only one way to access God (the ultimate reality) and my religion whichever-religion-that-might-be has it, to something called Complimentary Pluralism which postulates that there are multiple paths(religions) to different and equally true ultimate realties (God, Nirvana, etc) but all of these ultimate truths share common unifying principles. For Complimentary Pluralism the different paths to the ultimate truths reflect different questions and different answers, so they are not competing with each other or canceling each other out - they compliment each other. E asked us to look through the range of models for religious pluralism and think about which one each of us resonated with the most or the least.
I'm not entirely happy with any of them, but models are simply lenses through which we examine a common and not-quite-describable reality, so one can't expect a perfect fit. I suppose I like Complimentary Pluralism the best, mostly because I agree that a large part of substantial meaning-making in human life is how we formulate questions about our lives. I spent six years working as an interviewer in a longtitudinal study examining the long term effects of child abuse and neglect. If there was one thing I learned about method during that time it was that the way the questions are written ultimately affect the outcome more than anyone who thinks they are collecting data "objectively" would like to admit. I learned this again on my road to motherhood, which had several bumps and u-turns in it for me that at times felt quite tragic. I found that certain questions (why? for example) were just not helpful in sad situations, but that if I could step away from the impulse to find The Answer and work on asking a more productive question then I could make meaning out of the more baffling experiences of my life. (a quite personal example of how this worked for me can be found here, but classmates especially and other readers you are under no obligation to click on that link!)
So the three religions under discussion in this class are ultimately asking and answering different questions about what it means to be a human being. All the questions and answers involve an ultimate truth that all three describe as the One God. For me, at this point, it really boils down to understanding the questions that are being asked - what is the question, why would one ask it, how does the constant working out of asking this question shape human life similarly or differently than it would if one was asking a different question? How does this question make meaning, and does this resonate with me?
I have a feeling that with enough examination most of the questions that varying religions are asking would resonate on some level with most of us - IF we understood them. My family, background, cultural conditioning, geographic location, socio-economic reality and other specifics affect my ability to ask questions, what I think is important, what I notice, and the capacity I have to understand how to make theological meaning. I wish that the impulse to make my question everyone's question was something that my religion could let go. And I have hope for this possibility - I see Christians model it more often than one might expect. I think there is more important work to be done, the work of love - one of the most central answers to the question(s) that resonate for me.
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