[lit-ideas] Re: Comparative religion

On 2005/03/10, at 13:21, JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Okay.  Someone explain to me  what cultural or historical or political=20=

> or
> whatever reasons have caused the  eastern religions to be inclusive=20
> and the
> western religions to be  exclusive.  I won't ask, yet, where the=20
> middle-easterners
> fit  in.

Peter Junger has already answered, correctly in my view, that the real=20=

question is the origin of monotheism. Anthropologically speaking,=20
polytheism is far and away the human norm.

I note, too, that "inclusive" is a tricky word. In modern left-liberal=20=

parlance it carries a kind of warm and  beneficent glow that may be=20
entirely inappropriate for the kinds of interactions that result in the=20=

syncretism to which polytheistic traditions are, perhaps, more open=20
than monotheistic ones.  Polytheists at war with each other are a=20
common feature of most of human history. The history of Greece and Rome=20=

is full of familiar examples. See also the interactions of Taoists and=20=

Buddhists during the Tang Dynasty in China. The parties were often in=20
open conflict, competing for the favor of the current Emperor and=20
urging that the other be banished from court, if not expunged entirely=20=

from the menu of Chinese religious. At the same time, on an=20
intellectual plane their theorists were borrowing ideas from each=20
other.

One thing that may be hard for those raised in monotheistic traditions=20=

to realize is how radically polytheism changes the notion of "god."=20
When a god (or goddess) is no longer, unique, all-knowing,=20
all-powerful, many of the intellectual conundrums that plague Christian=20=

and Muslim theology fall away. There is no need to ask, for example,=20
how an all-powerful God can allow the presence of evil in the world.=20
Particular human troubles may simply be the result of different gods=20
playing favorites or lining up on different sides of human conflicts.=20
(See, for examples, the Iliad.)

It is even possible to regard gods from a thoroughly pragmatic=20
perspective. Here, then, is a wonderful example from historian of=20
Chinese religion Valerie Hansen,

> One day Li Mama told me she had gone to pray to a new god. I asked her=20=

> why she had decided to pray to that particular deity, and she replied=20=

> that the deity was ling. As I had never heard the word before, Li Mama=20=

> explained that a god was ling when he or she responded to requests.=20
> People in Taipei usually prayed when sick, or before taking the=20
> competitive college entrance examinations, or when hoping for a child.=20=

> And if the deity cured them, or enabled them to get into a good=20
> university, or brought them a son, then that particular deity was=20
> ling. Li Mama had visited this new temple hoping that the god was=20
> ling, but if he was not, then she would go to another god. Her point=20=

> was clear: people pray to gods to get things done, and they judge gods=20=

> on the basis of their ability to perform miracles. (Hansen, 1990,=20
> Changing Gods in Medieval China 1127-1276), p. ix)


Cheers,

John McCreery
=A0

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