the gods and globalization

i have been thinking lately about the relationship between world religions. in doing so i realize i join countless scholars, theologians, and philosophers from the past century. in fact, this topic has been on the forefront of scholarship for the same amount of time. in many ways, this is an inevitable place to find your thoughts on the road to ultimate reality. this inevitability is the result of the world getting simultaneously larger in numbers and smaller in ethno-cultural contact.

so, i realize that one can take 4 major positions regarding the world religions. i am going to write these from the perspective of christianity, because that is the religion of my culture.

position #1- exclusivism: this position is held by ultra-conservatives and fundamentalists. basically, only christianity is true and apart from a cognitive faith profession in jesus christ one will spend eternity in a really bad place. those who hold this position believe the bible is basically literal and inerrant. so its words have the final absolute say. those that hold this position are usually considered the heroes and the faithful by those who also hold this position, but usually ignorant and intolerant by everyone else.

position #2-inclusivism: basically everyone that is seeking truth is in essence seeking jesus and will be included among the saved. this is like the recent roman catholic declaration that all roads lead to rome. since jesus is the truth and all religions have some truth, those parts are basically considered as valid saving faith elements. jesus is like a truth umbrella covering all religions.

position #3-pluralism: all religions are in essence the same thing, just with different cultural embodiments. an analogy would be the universe: all of the planets are like different religions revolving around the sun. the sun is ultimate reality (God) and the different religions/planets are each on their own orbits. in this frame, God cannot be cornered by any one religion. he is beyond the full grasp of any one religion because he is beyond any grasp. he is the ultimate.

position #4- rejection: this is the growing one. this one is basically held by agnostics, athiests, and skeptics. they don't see any of the above options as valid because from a logical point of view none of the religions are compatible because they contradict each other in there presentation of reality. therefore, they mutually exclude each other and none of them can possibly be true. there is absolutely no way that one of them can be true to the exclusion of the other because a particular religion cannot disprove the truth claims of any of the other.

well, there's your menu. take your pick.