Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth

173 Pages·1992·4.48 MB·English

by  Mortimer J. Adler

Truth in Religion
THE PLURALITY OF RELIGIONS
AND THE UNITY OF TRUTH,
An Essay in the Philosophy of Religion
Mortimer J. Adler
COLLIER BOOKS
MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
NEW YORK
MAXWELL MACMILLAN CANADA • TORONTO
MAXWELL MACMILLAN INTERNATIONAL
NEW YORK - OXFORD • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY
Copyright © 1990 by Mortimer J. Adlei
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Collier Books Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc.
Macmillan Publishing Company 1200 Eglinton Avenue Ease
866 Third Avenue Suite 200
New York, NY L0022 Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N1
Macmillan Publishing Company is part of the Maxweli Communication Group of
Companies.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adler, Mortimer Jerome, ———
Truth in religion: the plurality of religions and the unity of
truth: an essay in the philosophy of religion/Mortimer J. Adler.
— 1st Collier Books ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-02-064140-0
1. Religion. 2. Truth. 3. Religious pluralism. I. Title.
IBL50.A35 1992} 9^-31083 C1P
200'.l~dc20
Macmillan books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions,
premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact:
Special Sales Direcror
Macmillan Publishing Company
866 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
First Collier Books Edition 1991
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
C O N T E N TS
PREFACE
vn
CHAPTER 1. The Restriction of Pluralism 1
CHAPTER 2. The Logic of Truth 10
CHAPTER 3. The Study of Religion and
Mythology 40
CHAPTER 4. Truth in Religion 69
CHAPTER 5. Recapitulation and Conclusion 101
APPENDICES
The Unity of Man and the Unity of Truth 113
Cultural Unity and Cultural Pluralism 129
Human Nature, Nurture, and Culture 145
INDEX 157
v

P R E F A CE
FOR many years I have been concerned with cultural pluralism
and for the need to restrict it to matters where such pluralism
is desirable as well as unavoidable. That is why I have included
in this volume as appendices excerpts from three lectures given
at earlier dares.
One was a lecture I delivered in 1973 at the Aspen Institute.
The question had been raised whether Far Eastern great books
should be included in the list of readings for the seminars
being conducted in Aspen, along with the great books in the
tradition of Western civilization. The lecture was, in part, my
effort to explain the reasons for my emphatically negative
answer.
The second appended lecture was delivered in Tokyo at
International House in 1978 to an audience of scholars, sci
entists, and philosophers from the local universities as well as
leading businessmen. I called the attention of that audience
VII
PREFACE
to the conflict between two spheres of thought in some Far
Eastern cultures: on the one hand their trust in Western tech
nology and in the soundness of its underlying mathematics
and physics; on the other hand their devotion to their religious
beliefs and practices. Were they content, I asked, to keep these
two commitments in logic-tight compartments and so prevent
them from challenging each other? Were they not disturbed
by the apparent schizophrenia that they suffered in consequence
of this? They were, I discovered from the discussion thereafter,
quite content, quite undisturbed.
The third appendix is of more recent date although it is a
summation of many lectures that I have given at Aspen in the
last twenty-five years. I delivered this one in July of 1989-
The excerpts chosen from that lecture deal especially with the
sameness of human nature at all times and places and with the
sameness of the human mind wherever we find human beings.
In 1981, when I wrote the chapters on truth in Six Great
Ideas, I further developed the distinction between matters of
taste, with respect to which pluralism is desirable, and matters
of truth, with respect to which it is not; and I raised rhe
question whether philosophy and religion belonged to the
sphere of taste or to the sphere of truth.
I call attention to these earlier lectures and to the chapters
on truth in Six Great Ideas because some of the things said
there are repeated in this book in order to make advances that
were not made in these earlier materials.
The advances were provoked by four recent books, two on
mythology, one by Professor Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty en
titled Other Peoples' Myths, the other by Professor Joseph Camp
bell entitled The Inner Reaches of Outer Space. Both books have
a bearing on the question of truth in religion.
The other two books are directly concerned with where truth
lies among the plurality of religions. One of these is by Pro-
vm
PREFACE
fessor Harvey Cox entitled Many Mansions, the other is by
Father Hans Kung entitled Theology for the Third Millennium:
An Ecumenical View. I have dealt with the views of O'Flaherty
and Campbell in Chapter 3, and with the views of Cox and
Kung in Chapter 4.
Having explained the background of this book by referring
to the three appendices and also what motivated me to write
it, I now wish to provide a brief outline of the chapters that
constitute! the book itself.
The title of this book indicates that its two main subjects
are the plurality of religions and the unity of truth. Hence I
begin in Chapter 1 with a discussion of pluralism and what
restrictions,must be imposed upon it when we are concerned
with matters of truth as differentiated from matters of taste
—matters in which the diversity of opinions and preferences
must be acknowledged, and accepted without argument.
Everyone is familiar with the maxim Degustibus non disputandum,
est: about matters of taste, there is no disputing. But not
everyone is familiar with the maxim De veritate disputandum
est: about matters of truth, we should engage in dispute-
that is, we should have recourse to the effort to reach agreement
about what is true and false.
Chapter 2 sets forth the logical considerations that underlie
one's engagement in the pursuit of truth in any field in which
persons claim truth for their views, their doctrines, or their
beliefs. Readers will find there a full explanation of what is
involved in the separation of matters of truth from matters of
taste as well as the argument for the unity of truth against
those who think that incompatible views, doctrines, or beliefs
can be embraced as true.
In Chapter 3, concerning the study of religion, a working
definition! of religion will be advanced and criteria will be
:\'
ix
M. JUJI .n-Vjii
proposed for classifying the major world religions in existence
today. Almost all of them, if not all, make claims for the truth
of their beliefs—the prescriptive truth of their moral precepts
or the descriptive, factual truth of their credal commitments,
or both. In some religions, credal commitments may not be
explicitly expressed, but they are always implicitly presup
posed by claims for the truth of prescriptive moral precepts.
It is in this context that mythology is discussed in relation to
religion, and their difference is illuminated by the distinction
between poetical truth and logical truth, descriptive or pre
scriptive.
Chapter 4 deals with the difficult problem of wl^ere the
truth lies in the plurality of religions that not only differ from
One another but make incompatible claims about the truth of
their beliefs concerning God, the cosmos, and human nature,
as well as about the truth of their prescriptions concerning
how human beings should conduct their lives. It is there that
the unity of truth comes into play in dealing with the plurality
of religions that make incompatible claims of truth. The book
ends, in Chapter 5, with questions to be answered rather than
with answers, with issues to be resolved rather than with their
resolution.
I must caution readers that I have written this book as a
philosopher and not as a communicant of one of the world's
great religions. It is, therefore, not a piece of apologetics,
arguing for the truth of one religion as opposed to others. It
attempts to clarify the problem of truth in religion, but it
does not attempt to solve it. In my judgment, the clarification
it provides is a step toward the solution.
Finally, I must express my indebtedness to Otto Bird, as
sociated with me for many years at the Institute for Philo
sophical Research, for all the help he has given me in the
preparation and writing of this book; to John Van Doren, also
x
PREFACE
my colleague at the Institute, for his advice and assistance; to
Professor Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty of the University of Chi
cago Divinity School, for the helpful conversations we had
about mythology and religion; and to my secretary, Marlys
Allen, for her patience in dealing with the revision of the
manuscript.
XI