Between One Faith and Another

Engaging Conversations on the World's Great Religions

Peter Kreeft

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780830890842
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Religion comparée

How do we make sense of the world's different religions? In today's globalized society, religion is deeply intertwined with every issue we see on the news. But talking about multiple religions can be contentious. Are different faiths compatible somehow? And how can we know whether one religion is more true than another? In this creative thought experiment, Peter Kreeft invites us to encounter dialogues on the world's great faiths. His characters Thomas Keptic and Bea Lever are students in Professor Fesser's course on world religions, and the three explore the content and distinctive claims of each. Together they probe the plausibility of major religions, from Hinduism and Buddhism to Christianity and Islam. Along the way they explore how religions might relate to each other and to what extent exclusivism or inclusivism might make sense. Ultimately Kreeft gives us helpful tools for thinking fairly and critically about competing religious beliefs. If the religions are different kinds of music, do they together make harmony or cacophony? Decide for yourself.

1

WHAT IS RELIGION?

The Problem of Definition

Bea and Thomas have just come from the first class in Professor Fesser’s course on world religions.

Thomas:	Well, that was a surprise!
Bea:	To me too, frankly. I think I’m going to drop this course.
Thomas:	Oh. Apparently your surprise was the opposite of mine. I didn’t think I was going to stay, but now I think I am. I thought the professor would be vague, but he’s not. He made us think.
Bea:	You think he made us think just because he asked a question we couldn’t answer and then shot down all our answers and left us hanging?
Thomas:	Yes! That’s exactly what Socrates used to do. And it’s a lot harder than most people think it is. And more valuable.
Bea:	But it didn’t help us to understand the thing we all came there to understand.
Thomas:	What thing is that?
Bea:	The religions of the world. That’s the course title, after all.
Thomas:	And that’s what the professor talked about. So what’s your complaint?
Bea:	He proved that we didn’t even know what the word religion meant. So we don’t even know what we mean when we call these things religions. If we can’t even define the most basic term in the course, why bother taking a course in it? It’s ridiculous. Throughout history we keep having arguments about religion, and we fight wars to the death about religion, but we don’t even know what it is, what we’re fighting about! It’s ridiculous.
Thomas:	I quite agree that that’s ridiculous. So let’s make it less ridiculous.
Bea:	How?
Thomas:	Don’t you think we made any progress in doing that today?
Bea:	In understanding the religions of the world, the thing this course is supposed to be about? No! In understanding what religion means? No!
Thomas:	Don’t you think it’s progress to understand that we don’t really understand what we thought we did understand?
Bea:	I understand how that Socratic skepticism may be fun for you. You like to play those games.
Thomas:	It’s not fun and games. It’s understanding. That’s what you’re paying big tuition bucks to this university for, isn’t it?
Bea:	You are, maybe. You just love to tear ideas apart, like Socrates, don’t you?
Thomas:	But the Socratic method isn’t “me versus you.” It’s logic.
Bea:	Your logic,...