Is Religious Plurality in the Way of Theism?

Abstract

In this article I critically analyse both Alexander Khramov’s way of ‘neutralising’ religious diversity in favour of theism and his conviction that this ‘neutralisation’ itself is in the interests of theism. In contrast, I demonstrate that the proposed attempt to scientifically dismantle polytheistic religious experience can just as easily be turned to dismantle monotheistic experience, and a parallel is drawn with the old simple-minded use of the concept of euhemerism to expose paganism. However, I consider the much more balanced W. Alston’s embarrassment because of the lack of independent weights for comparative weighing of Christian and non-Christian religious perceptions as a consequence of scientism (and perhaps political correctness). I offer many examples of how people make judgements about things other than religion with good reason and without ‘independent sources’, which for these cases simply do not exist, and for comparative procedures I propose instead of scientific associations artistic associations and what Immanuel Kant called ‘judgements of taste’. I conclude with some speculations as to what the answer to the ‘challenge of pluralism’ might be from the standpoint of a theism based on Scripture and Tradition.