Author: Dharam Singh
Publisher: Punjabi University
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 158
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8130202506
Description
The easy availability of literature on all religions has resulted in better understanding of religions – our own others. The earlier belief in the myth of uniqueness of one’s own faith is now gradually giving way to the belief that Truth is many-sided. Multiple religions break down the clear effulgence of Light into a multicolored spectrum of human religious expressions.
The Absolute is infinite and inexpressible, but we can study how different people in different languages and cultures experienced God and how their scriptures have interpreted that experience. Men, women and children of other faiths are genuine persons, with genuine faiths, those who see the universe but see it in different ways.
Since this attitude has been a pre-requisite for making inter-community relations peaceful and harmonious, many books have come out from the perspective of different religions, including Christianity, Islam and Buddhism which happen to be missionary faiths. However, there were only some stray articles and no such full-length study was attempted from the Sikh perspective.
Apart from defining religious pluralism and analyzing inter faith relations in the Indian context, this book endeavors to study the Sikh scriptures and tradition to articulate the Sikh attitude towards other faiths and faith-communities.
It tries to highlight the Sikh view that God's voice speaks in many languages, communicating itself in a diversity of intuitions. The word God never comes to an end. No word is God's last word. The Sikh acceptance of the entire humankind's one brotherhood, all religions as genuine paths and different communities as genuine people is also emphasized.
The latter half of the twentieth century has seen our wide big World being transformed into a global village and the entire humankind into a global community. Now people belonging to different Religions and Cultures in a way live as next door neighbors. These different faith-communities are so placed as to live together and interact with one another on daily basis.
They can neither afford to live in isolation of nor clash with one another. This coupled with the phenomenon of Religious resurgence which this period has witnessed has resulted in A Good amount of literature being published on the subject of religion.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
1. Religious Pluralism : Concept and Meaning
2. Interfaith Encounter : Indian Context
3. Pluralism : A Canonical Perspective
4. Pluralism and Sikh Tradition
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography