Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

religious experience, as far back as we can take
All
none of it is pure, authentic, unadulterated. The
it,
practised in the year 100 is radically unlike
Christianity
practice now. Christians don’t always like to
Christian
that, but it’s so. Same thing is true of Judaism.
admit
thing is true of all the great religious traditions.
Same
Hinduism, various schools of thought have dierent
In
for what constitutes valid knowledge (pramā)
criteria
invalid knowledge (apramā); and what are
and
sources of knowledge.
legitimate
the diversity of religious intellectual traditions,
Given
the distinct ways each of them approaches
and
about where knowledge comes from, and
questions
knowledge is valid, does it make sense to speak
what
religious knowledge as one thing? Are the various
of
more similar than they are dierent? Some
religions
those who suggest the answer is “yes” start from
of
assumption of a fundamental truth underlying all
an
sentiment drove the Mughal Emperor Abū al-Fath
This
al-Di Muh ammad Akbar to convene interreligious
Jalāl
among adherents of Islam, Hinduism,
dialogues
Judaism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism
Christianity,
his court in the second half of the 16th century. At
at
the same time, Jean Bodin imagined a similar
around
between seven sages, including a Roman
conversation
a Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Jew, a Muslim, as well
Catholic,
a natural philosopher and a sceptic in Colloquium
as
Seven about Secrets of the Sublime.
ofthe
were early attempts to discern a common
These
amid all the religious dierence. Echoes of this
core
appear in the eld of comparative religion,
sentiment
in eorts to promote religious tolerance through
and
dialogue and education. The claim is that if
interfaith
religions share a common core of true beliefs, then
all
search for and nd this would be promising in terms
to
promoting mutual understanding and overcoming
of
conict. And, not insignicantly, adherents
religious
dierent religious faiths would have less reason to
of
the truthfulness of other faiths. In light of this,
doubt
the role of truth in religious knowledge—is truth
examine
that religions disagree about or is it a unifying
something
of religious knowledge?
factor
the coloration of their time and temperament and
on
the local color, as much as anything can. So any
of
of a one—of a true, authentic faith always
notion
us backwards towards fundamentalism. And
leads
is a betrayal of the varieties of religious
fundamentalism
not an assertion of them.
experience,
II. Perspectives
II. Perspectives
religious dierence.
A religious assembly of dierent faiths at the court
Figure 6.3
of Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556–1605), miniature painting by
Nar Singh circa 1605)
II.2 Multiple perspectives
They have changed within themselves, have taken
(Gopnik quoted in Tippett 2017)
147