Perennialism, Pluralism, and Hybridization

This week Jorge gave us a quick rundown on the history of what we might call inter-faith dialogue

Age of Monologue

• Universalism
  • Perennialism corroborated
    • Jorge mentioned a dialogue between Sallie B. King and Sayyed Hossein Nasr worth taking a closer look.  Nasr is one of the most well respected contemporary perennialist thinkers, while King is well known scholar of Buddhism
    • Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, “The Philosophia Perennis and the Study of Religion.”
    • King, Sallie B., “The Philosophia Perennis and the Religions of the World.”
• Exclusivism
  • apologetics
  • conversion

Age of Dialogue

• Inclusivism
  • subtle apologetics
  • assimilation
• Ecumenical Pluralism
  • tolerance
  • peace/harmony
  • there is a tendency to degenerate into exclusivism or inclusivism

Age of Syntheses

• Radical or Genuine Pluralism
  • communion with other
  • creative spirituality
  • reciprocal illumination
  • mutual transformation
  • Hybridization
    • the Mardis Gras Indians (like the boy shown here) are a fascinating example of contemporary hybridization…  another question regarding such hybridization…  how deep does it go…  simply cultural bricolage or something else entirely?

Conversation lit up the room…  I believe that I may have heard a defense of ecumenical pluralism, I certainly heard several of you speak up for some version of universalism.  I wonder if there were not some thoughts of inclusivism running around the room as well.  This is definitely a hot topic, and so I wonder aloud…  what, if anything, does the radical pluralism Jorge and Jacob are pointing to offer to the conversation?

Could the golden rule or some universal ethic be the answer to our riddle?

Jacob brought up a great point…  is there a kind of historical triumphalism in Jorge’s mode wherein history is on our side… Jorge noted this importance of this critique, and the difficulties in putting forward any such model…  both he and others in the class also spoke to the desire to do so, even if it means facing such challenges.

Another student pressed Jorge on the problem of novelty…  If I understood the question right…  The Self of Advaita Vedanta was given as an example of a non-temporal, unchanging, unmanifest ultimate….  is Jorge and Jacob’s “relaxed spiritual universalism” somehow different from such an ultimate….  is there some big ultimate within which all other ultimates rest…  is there no One in the end….  this was a great conversation, which I would love to see followed up here.

Someone shared there thoughts on the future of religion, which led others to extrapolate about the possibilities of a kind of vulgar or vapid  individuality.

I also heard several people question the importance of questioning at all…  this is an ongoing critique…  why bother!?

In the end we spoke of death and where one goes when one dies…  I could not hope to account for all the comments that were shared, but anyone who would like to continue the conversation here is more than welcome.