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The presuppositions of inter-religious communication—a philosophical approach1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Margaret Chatterjee
Margaret Chatterjee
Affiliation:
University of Delhi
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Extract

Religion has in the past, it may be truefully admitted, done more than its share of fostering the spirit of ‘we’ over against ‘they’. Economic and political factors have unfortunately, throughout history, clogged the channels of communication between men of one faith and those of another. The most unhappy aspect of the relation between religion and society has been the way in which the former has fostered the distinction between the insider and the outsider. Typical of this is the fact that most religious communities have a word which describes the religious outsider and the word is never a flattering one. That there should be religious diversity in the first place should occasion no surprise. Diversification is the order of things in the biological realm and we would not expect to find a sudden departure from this, that is, a move towards convergence, in the sphere of religion. But unless diversification is matched with understanding and with communication we face the future at our peril. It is for this reason that the question of inter-religious communication, the ground of its possibility, can be regarded not only as the most pressing of problems for the student of comparative religion (for unless there is prior understanding and communication where indeed are the data to be compared?) but as a matter of pressing urgency for all.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , October 1967 , pp. 391 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

page 392 note 1 Nature, Man and God p. 317. Temple's specific mention is of ‘revelation’ but the comment is, I think, applicable to ‘religion’ as a whole.

page 392 note 2 Our knowledge of other selves (Asia Publishing House, 1963).

page 393 note 1 Cf. Kenneth Cragg in The call of the Minaret: ‘…we must study what they mean, in all the moods, the overtones and undertones of their existence. It is our life-task to make bridges into their minds. This means being near enough to be heard’. It means also, I am sure, being near enough to listen.

page 394 note 1 Vide chapter IX in my Our Knowledge of Other Selves for the distinction between paradigms and failures.

page 394 note 2 I believe there is a similar situation in the case of communication of moral viewpoints. The basic presupposition is an agreement that ‘It matters what one does’.

page 395 note 1 This presents a thorny problem of discrimination to the social reformer.

page 396 note 1 This way of putting it offers a direct challenge to the proselytising religions.

page 398 note 1 Inter-denominational communication—situations within a single religious tradition also set a similar task.

page 399 note 1 The Kierkegaardian relegation of the aesthetic to the lowest stage of the dialectic of life tends to make at least the Protestant religious consciousness ignore this relevance.

page 399 note 2 The call of the Minaret (Oxford University Press, 1956).

page 400 note 1 The Phenomenon of Man p. 262.

page 400 note 2 Ibid p. 271.