Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I INTRODUCTIONS
- II MORAL OBLIGATION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF
- III RELIGION AND SOME CONTEMPORARY MORAL CONTROVERSIES
- IV THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND THE SECULAR LAW
- V RESPONDING TO RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
- 16 Holding the Truth, Lightly: Religion, Truth, and Pluralism
- 17 Jewish-Christian Understanding: Transcending the Legacy of History
- VI RELIGIOUSLY GROUNDED MORAL DECISION-MAKING IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE
- Copyright Permission Acknowledgments
- Authors of Works Reprinted
- Scriptural Passages
- Index
16 - Holding the Truth, Lightly: Religion, Truth, and Pluralism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I INTRODUCTIONS
- II MORAL OBLIGATION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF
- III RELIGION AND SOME CONTEMPORARY MORAL CONTROVERSIES
- IV THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND THE SECULAR LAW
- V RESPONDING TO RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
- 16 Holding the Truth, Lightly: Religion, Truth, and Pluralism
- 17 Jewish-Christian Understanding: Transcending the Legacy of History
- VI RELIGIOUSLY GROUNDED MORAL DECISION-MAKING IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE
- Copyright Permission Acknowledgments
- Authors of Works Reprinted
- Scriptural Passages
- Index
Summary
We do not begin with extolling the beauty, goodness or utility of what we have proclaimed. Our first and foremost concern is its truth. All other considerations are secondary. We cannot place our faith in fictions, no matter how useful, appealing, or attractive they may be.
Rabbi Walter S. WurzburgerThe problem is perhaps best raised by recalling the classic story about the Two Chaplains: Of differing Protestant denominations, they had served for a year in the same infantry company during the First World War and went through a lot together. As they were being mustered out, they exchanged words of heartfelt appreciation for having known and served with the other during a difficult time. “Before we say ‘goodbye’,” one added, a bit sheepishly, “I have to acknowledge that knowing you has forced me to change my ideas about some things that are very important to me. Until I met and got to know you, I believed that people who worship as you do were agents of Satan. I'm embarrassed to say that, but you can appreciate how I would think that way. Well, I was wrong. In fact, I now realize that we both worship the same God – you in your way, and I in His.”
As the saying goes, that joke would be pretty funny were it not for the fact that it isn't funny at all. “You still don't get it, Reverend,” seems a wholly apt, and pretty mild, response to the “embarrassed” chaplain.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Religion in Legal Thought and Practice , pp. 489 - 533Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010