Exclusivism Vs Pluralism In Religion

For centuries there has been a countless debates regarding do all religions share a common thread and which religion is actually correct? The major commonality of all religions is the pursuit of the truth however each religion has it own understanding of this truth. The interesting fact is each religions believes that there can be only one truth, subsequently, they bash each others ideas and path explaining that they’re belief is the right one. The next question is: which religion actually offers the answer to this truth. To understand this question we must look into two positions: exclusivism and pluralism.

What is exclusivism you might ask? Religions exclusivism is the belief that only one religion is true. Exclusivists believe that

their own religion is the only true understanding of the truth of God and the path of salvation compared to all other. Exclusivist would even take it a step further condemning all that don’t believe that there belief is the only way to salvation. From an exclusivist stand point, while other religions beliefs have an understanding of God and the ultimate truth of salvation, there understanding is not substantial and lacks accuracy. For them, religion is all unyielding and uncompromising stance; its either you understand and believe that there is one God and one way to his salvation or you cannot be saved and find the ultimate truth. Embree discusses in class, that many teachings and religions have a different view of a higher being but there is no proof, but faith that there one (Embree, 9/21). This in fact, contradicts what exclusivism is all about. In essence we don’t actually know if there is truly a higher being but we rely on faith to believe that there has to be a reason or ultimate truth as to why there is the reality of this world. 

Compared with religious exclusivism, religious pluralism offers a more loving variation in belief; proclaim that salvation is possible for all religions. Religious pluralism is the belief that two or more religious worldviews can be equally acceptable. However it’s more than that, religious pluralism accepts all teachings of different religions, even though they might contradict each other. Embree even goes on to say, many religions do in fact share similar ideas of salvation and the ultimate like myself he believes there can only be one mean or religion that accurate portrays the truth of salvation (Embree,9/23). Stretching the subject even further, pluralist see every religion as equal and in order to arrive at the truth of salvation we must compose all religions. However, combining each religion and trying to patch each contradictions to ultimate create a super charged religion stance isn’t the answer to the pursuit of the truth of why every being and everything around us exists.

To conclude, I don’t believe that this countless debate will ever seize to end. However, today many individuals’ response and stance have changed towards different religions.