12 - Pluralism or ‘Reciprocal Inclusivism’?

Summary

It is suggested that there is an aspect of perennialist thinking that might cause hesitation before adopting religious pluralism. This is the fact that, in the perennialist perspective, it is not possible to interrogate the contemplative capacities of faith traditions other than one’s own because these are not expressible in propositional terms. Because of this, religious pluralism can only be verified eschatologically. For this reason, Philip Sherrard’s kind of pluralism becomes questionable since a kind of inclusivism may be necessary: not of the usual kind that assumes the superiority of one’s own faith tradition but the kind that acknowledges that other traditions’ ways of viewing one’s own tradition in an inclusivist way may be as valid as one’s own tradition’s way of looking at other traditions in an inclusivist way. This attitude will be what we can call ‘reciprocal inclusivism’. The methodology associated with this stance will avoid syncretism and involve using other traditions primarily to deepen appreciation of one’s own tradition.