Volume 38, Issue 4

Abstract

Abstract

Is it possible to decide which religion is right in claiming the ‘Truth’? A distinction is made between three positions: 1) Exclusivism (‘extra ecclesiam nulla salus’); 2) universalism (the world religions are human responses to the same Divine revelation); 3) relativism (religions as ‘forms of life’, not justifiable by external criteria). Having criticised these positions, I argue that we should distinguish between metaphysical truth claims in an ‘existential’ and in a ‘philosophical’ sense. In the existential sense, in view of our basic convictions, we are exclusivists. In the philosophical sense, given the , we are not able to decide which religion is right in claiming the ‘Truth’. This is a reason for modesty and, as such, a motive for tolerance.

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/content/journals/10.5117/NTT1984.4.004.SCHR
1984-10-01
2024-03-29
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