Participatory Vision of the Future of Religion

Essay: The Plurality of Religions and the Spirit of Pluralism: A Participatory Vision of the Future of Religion. Jorge N. Ferrer, California Institute of Integral Studies. The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Abstract:

"This paper first uncovers the subtle spiritual narcissism that has characterized historical approaches to religious diversity and discusses the shortcomings of the main forms of religious pluralism that have been proposed as its antidote: ecumenical, soteriological, postmodern, and metaphysical. It then argues that a participatory pluralism paves the way for an appreciation of religious diversity that eschews the dogmatism and competitiveness involved in privileging any particular tradition over the rest without falling into cultural-linguistic or naturalistic reductionisms. Discussion includes the question of the validity of spiritual truths and the development of a participatory critical theory of religion. The essay concludes with an exploration of different scenarios for the future of religion—global religion, mutual transformation, interspiritual wisdom, and spirituality without religion—and proposes that such a future may be shaped by spiritually individuated persons engaged in processes of cosmological hybridization in the context of a common spiritual family. A participatory approach to spirituality turns the problem of religious plurality into a celebration of the critical spirit of pluralism.

When David B. Barret, the main editor of the massive World Christian Encyclopedia (Barret et al., 2001), was asked what he had learnt about religious change in the world after several decades of research, he responded with the following: “We have identified nine thousand and nine hundred distinct and separate religions in the world, increasing by two or three religions every day” (cited in Lester, 2002, p. 28). Although there may be something to celebrate in this spiritual diversity and ongoing innovation, it is also clear that the existence of many conflicting religious visions of reality and human nature is a major cause of the prevailing skepticism toward religious and spiritual truth claims. Against the background of modernist assumptions about a singular objective reality, it is understandable that the presence of a plurality of mutually exclusive accounts leads to the confident dismissal of religious explanations. It is as if contemporary culture has succumbed to the Cartesian anxiety behind what W. E. Hocking called the “scandal of plurality,” the worry that “if there are so many divergent claims to ultimate truth, then perhaps none is right” (cited in Clarke, 1997, p. 134). This competitive predicament among religious beliefs is not only a philosophical or existential problem; it has also has profoundly affected how people from different credos engage one another and, even today, plays an important role in many interreligious conflicts, quarrels, and even holy wars.2 As the theologian Hans Küng (1988) famously said, there can be “no world peace without peace among religions” (p. 194) to which we may add that “there might not be complete peace among religions without ending the competition among religions.”

Typical responses to the scandal of religious plurality tend to fall along a continuum between two drastically opposite positions. At one end of the spectrum, materialistic, scientifically-minded, and “nonreligionist” scholars retort to the plurality of religious world views to downplay or dismiss altogether the cognitive value of religious knowledge claims, regarding religions as cultural fabrications which, like art pieces or culinary dishes, can be extremely diverse and even personally edifying but never the bearers of any “objective” truth whatsoever (e.g., Rorty, 1998). At the other end, spiritual practitioners, theologians, and “religionist” scholars vigorously defend the cognitive value of religion, addressing the problem of religious pluralism by either endorsing the exclusive (or ultimately superior) truth of their preferred tradition or developing universalist understandings that seek to reconcile the conflicting spiritual truths within one or another encompassing system. Despite their professed integrative stance, most universalist visions of human spirituality tend to distort the essential message of the various religious traditions, hierarchically favoring certain spiritual truths over others and raising serious obstacles for interreligious harmony and open-ended spiritual inquiry (see Ferrer, 2000, 2002).

My intention is this essay is to first uncover the spiritual narcissism characteristic of our shared historical approach to religious diversity, as well as briefly discuss the shortcomings of the main forms of religious pluralism that have been proposed as its antidote. Second, I introduce the “participatory turn” in the study of spirituality and religion, showing how it can help us to develop a fresh appreciation of religious diversity that avoids the dogmatism and competitiveness involved in privileging any particular tradition over the rest without falling into cultural-linguistic or naturalistic reductionisms. Then I offer some practical orientations to assess the validity of spiritual truths and outline the contours of a participatory critical theory of religion. To conclude, I explore different scenarios for the future or religion and suggest that a participatory approach to religion not only fosters our spiritual individuation in the context of a common human spiritual family, but also turns the problem of religious plurality into a celebration of the critical spirit of pluralism."

Excerpts

The Varieties of Religious Pluralism:

"Religious pluralism comes in many guises and fashions. Before suggesting a participatory remedy to our spiritual narcissism in dealing with religious difference, I critically review here four major types of religious pluralism: ecumenical, soteriological, postmodern, and metaphysical."

The Future of Religion: Four Scenarios:

Jorge Ferrer:

"In light of our previous discussion, let us now consider four scenarios for the future of world religion and spirituality. As we go through them, I invite you, the reader, to not only consider their plausibility but also inquire into what particular scenario you feel is the most desirable: What would you like to see happening?"

A Global Religion:

The first scenario portrays the emergence of a single world religion for humankind.7 This global religion may stem from either the triumph of one spiritual tradition over the rest (e.g., Catholic Christianity or the Dalai Lama’s school of Tibetan Buddhism) or some kind of synthesis of many or most traditions (e.g., the Baha’i faith or Wilber’s neo-perennialism). The former possibility would entail that religious practitioners—except those from the “winning” tradition—recognize the erroneous or partial nature of their beliefs and embrace the superior truth of an already existent tradition. The latter means that most or all traditions would ultimately come together or be integrated—whether in an evolutionary, hierarchical, systemic, or perspectival fashion—into one religious megasystem embraced by all religious people. A contemporary defense of a converging world faith emerging from interreligious interactions is offered by Braybrooke (1998).

Mutual Transformation of Religions:

In this scenario, the various religious traditions conserve their identity, but are enriched and transformed through a variety of interreligious exchanges and interactions (Cobb, 1996; Streng, 1993). This approach paves the way for not only the adoption of practices from other traditions (e.g., Gross & Muck, 2003), but also the emergence of deeper understandings and even revisions of one’s beliefs in light of others’ religious perspectives (e.g., Ingram & Streng, 1986)—a phenomenon aptly described by Sharma (2005) in terms of “reciprocal illumination.” A historical precursor of this possibility can be found in religious syncretism (i.e., the mixture or two or more traditions), such as the Haitian Vodou’s blending of Christianity and African traditions or the Brazilian Santo Daime Church’s incorporation of the indigenous use of ayahuasca into a Christian container. Today this religious cross-fertilization is visibly taking place in the interfaith dialogue, the New Age movement, and a legion of eclectic and integrative spiritual groups. Interestingly, the Jesuit thinker Teilhard de Chardin believed that this cross-fertilization would lead to a “global consciousness” characterized by religious “creative unions in which diversity is not erased but intensified” (Cousins, 1992, p. 8).

Within this scenario I would also locate the growing phenomenon of “multiple religious participation” (Berthrong, 1999), in which an individual partakes in the practices and belief systems of more than one tradition, leading to a “multiple” or “hyphenated religious identity,” such as Jewish-Buddhist, Hindu-Christian, Buddhist-Taoist, and so forth. Also related to this picture is the ongoing renewal of many religious traditions through cross-cultural encounters, a trend that can be discerned in contemporary American Buddhism, Neo-Hindu applied spiritualities, and the novel social understandings of salvation in Asia (Clarke, 2006). What is more, some sociologists claim that this phenomenon may also be impacting secular culture. This is the gist of Campbell’s (1999) “Easternization thesis,” according to which the West is changing its ethos via the importation of Eastern religions and adopting Eastern ideas and practices such as interconnectedness, reincarnation, or meditation (see also Bruce, 2002; Hamilton, 2002). A contemporary way to speak of all these richly transformative religious and cultural interactions is in terms of processes of “cosmological hybridization” (Lahood, 2008), which, I suggest, can be not only conceptual (of spiritual beliefs and understandings), but also praxis-oriented (of spiritual practices) and even visionary (of spiritual ontologies and cosmologies).

Interspiritual Wisdom:

Another scenario is the affirmation or emergence of a number of spiritual principles, teachings, or values endorsed by all religious traditions. Küng’s (1991) proposal for a global ethics heralded this possibility, but it was the late Christian author Teasdale (1999) who offered its most compelling articulation in terms of a “universal mysticism” grounded in the practice of “interspirituality” or “the sharing of ultimate experiences across traditions” (p. 26). Though seeking to avoid the homogenization of traditions into one single global religion, Teasdale uses the traditional metaphor of the blind men and the elephant to convey his perspectival account of a given “ultimate reality” of which all religions have partial perceptions that nonetheless constitute paths leading to the same summit. Developing a similar intuition but eschewing Teasdale’s objectivist assumptions is Lanzetta’s (2007) recent proposal for an “intercontemplative” global spirituality that affirms the interdependence of spiritual principles and can “give birth to new traditions and spiritual paths in the crucible of dialogue” (p. 118); as well as Forman’s (2004) articulation of a “trans-traditional spirituality” that feeds on the insights of all religious traditions, moving beyond the confines of any particular credo.

Spirituality without Religion:

This scenario is composed by the impressive number of contemporary developments—from secular to postmodern to Jungian and from naturalistic to New Age spiritualities—that advocate for the cultivation of a spiritual life free from traditional religious beliefs and/or transcendent or supernatural postulates (e.g., Elkins, 1998; Heelas & Woodhead, 2005; Van Ness, 1996). Two prominent trends within this category are postmodern secular spiritualities and the New Age movement. Though the former rejects or remains agnostic about supernatural or transcendent sources and the latter tends to uncritically accept them, both join hands in their affirmation of the primacy of individual choice and experience, as well as in their criticism of religious dogmas and authoritarian institutions. Calls for a “democratization of spirit” (Tacey, 2004), a “direct path” to the divine (Harvey, 2009), or the reclaiming of one’s “inner spiritual authority” (Heron, 2006) are intimately linked with these developments. We could also locate here scholarly spiritualities that combine experiential participation and critical reason (e.g., Ferrer & Sherman, 2008; Neville, 2002), “postsecular spiritualities” (e.g., King, 2009), most forms of religious naturalism (e.g., Kauffman, 2008), modern “religious quests” (Roof, 1999), “secular surrogates” for religion (Ziolkowski, 2007), and proposals for a “humanizing spirituality” (Lesser, 1999). Expressions such as “spiritual but not religious” (Fuller, 2001), “religion of no religion” (Kripal, 2007), and “believing without belonging” (Taylor, 2007) capture well the essential character of this orientation.