Religious Diversity: A Philosophical Assessment

Trinity Journal, Fall 2002 by Netland, Harold

David Basinger. Religious Diversity: A Philosophical Assessment. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002.123 pp. $24.95.

The past several decades have witnessed a remarkable surge of academic interest in the subject of religious pluralism. Until fairly recently, however, such discussion was restricted largely to theologians and missiologists, but in the last few years philosophers have recognized that religious diversity prompts some interesting questions with significant philosophical implications. The literature on philosophical treatments of religious diversity is growing, both in volume and sophistication. In this helpful new work, David Basinger, a Christian philosopher teaching at Roberts Wesleyan College, provides a concise introduction to some of the philosophical issues and positions in current discussions over religious diversity. Basinger's primary concern is not with theological issues about Christianity and other religions but rather with explicitly philosophical questions arising from our growing awareness of religious diversity. Nevertheless, the issues he addresses and his treatment of them have important implications for Christian thinkers in other domains such as theology, apologetics, and public policy.

The book itself is divided into seven chapters and concludes with a brief list of recommended readings and an index. Throughout, Basinger focuses upon epistemological implications stemming from the fact of widespread and deeply rooted religious disagreement, in particular, with the implications of such disagreement for someone who believes that his religious perspective alone is true. "[Ilf it is in fact the case that seemingly sincere, knowledgeable individuals differ on the nature of the divine, can the proponent of any specific perspective justifiably claim that she alone has the truth, or is at least closer to the truth than all others?" (p. vii). What is the religious believer who is committed to the distinctive truth of his or her own religious perspective both entitled to believe and obligated to do when confronted by sincere and intelligent adherents of religious perspectives different from, and perhaps even incompatible with, his or her own?

The first chapter introduces the issues and argument of the book, and chs. 2 through 4 deal with various epistemological questions related to justification of one's own position in light of awareness of deep disagreement (more on this later). Chapter 5 considers some philosophical issues posed by Christian teaching on salvation, heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Basinger is not concerned here with resolving the theological questions of the eternal destiny of humankind, but rather with exploring the logical relationships between various positions advanced by Christian thinkers, and in particular with defending the traditional Christian claim that many, if not most, non-Christians will spend eternity apart from God's presence against criticisms prompted by religious diversity. Basinger's clarification of the issues and logical relationships here is helpful and should inform future theological treatments of theodicy and the destiny of those who do not follow Jesus Christ. In ch. 6 Basinger examines the place of apologetics in the context of religious diversity. In addition to the standard distinction between negative and positive apologetics, Basinger also makes a helpful distinction between what he calls personal positive apologetics (the attempt to identify for oneself sufficient reasons for holding the religious beliefs one does in fact hold) and proselytizing positive apologetics (offering positive reasons for accepting one's own religious beliefs to someone who does not already accept them), and he concludes that, with certain qualifications, it can be appropriate for someone already committed to the truth of his or her own beliefs to engage in the various forms of apologetics in contexts of religious diversity. The final chapter shifts the focus somewhat and considers pedagogy in the classroom when teaching in areas relating to religious diversity. Basinger argues for a form of "neutralism" in which the teacher refrains, as much as possible, from making his or her own views known to the students in an effort to ensure fairness and objectivity to all perspectives.

Basinger has written a helpful and accessible book which reflects not only his admirable mastery of the literature but also the wisdom that comes from years of experience in working through these issues in the classroom. Every writer, of course, has an agenda, and with literature on religious diversity the agenda often seems to be that of prodding "exclusivists" to adopt more "pluralistic" perspectives. It is thus refreshing indeed to see someone writing with the purpose of defending exclusivists in their beliefs within contexts of religious diversity.

Does exposure to religious diversity have any epistemic effect upon someone who is already committed to a particular religious tradition? In particular, does it tend to reduce the level of epistemic confidence in one's own religious commitments? This is an empirical, or descriptive, question and it seems that at least for many people, sustained exposure to certain kinds of religious diversity does cause one to reevaluate some of his or her own initial commitments, or at least the degree of confidence one has in these beliefs. Should such exposure have this effect upon religious believers? This, of course, is a normative question about how one is epistemically entitled or obligated to respond to awareness of religious diversity. It is this latter question that is Basinger's primary concern, and in the following paragraphs I will make just a few brief comments on his treatment of the issue.