|
Difficult Dialogues: Promoting Pluralism and Academic Freedom on Campus
Religious Particularism, the world view that holds that one’s own religious group’s beliefs and practices are the only true or legitimate ones, appears in many major religious traditions. The religious exclusivist insists that one’s own tradition is the “right” or “orthodox” way, while other religions are “heterodox” or “superstitious.” There is, from this perspective, only one truth and a single avenue to religious salvation. In many cases, religious particularism provides believers with an incentive to missionize, with the aim of bringing hope and comfort to persons who adhere to other faiths. In some cases, religious particularism has inspired social service and global aid that have had profound benefits. However, religious particularism can also lead to intolerance towards those who are not of the same religion. Historically, it has been used to justify outright violence toward other religious groups, and to curb the religious freedom of others. Particularist versions of many religions figure prominently as a source of ethno-religious nationalism and other major conflicts in the world today. In Texas, some particularist versions of Christianity motivate considerable intolerance, discrimination and incivility toward not only persons of other faiths, but even other Christians who embrace more inclusive versions of the same religious tradition. This dialogue will be designed to promote the recognition of others’ right to believe and freely practice their own religion. At best, it may help to uncover a spiritual commonality and to promote a real appreciation and respect for the religious practices and moral stances of others’ religions, even when they seem to differ dramatically from one's own.
Special Events Fall 2006
1. “What Do You Believe?
2. Barbara McGraw
October 9, 2006
3. “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”
|