Religious Truth and Pluralism: Pragmatist Reflections

This paper explores religious pluralism from a pragmatist point of view. The question concerning the truth-aptness of religious discourse is first discussed. It is argued that a strongly realist account of religious truth entails an exclusivist conception according to which at most one religion can be true. It is further suggested that, because in multicultural societies we have an ethical and political duty to promote religious pluralism instead of exclusivism, we should try replacing the standard realistic notion of truth by a pragmatist notion drawn primarily from William James. In this context, James’s individualism is compared to Hannah Arendt’s conception of natality (human beings’ distinctive capacity of beginning things anew), and the Jamesian pragmatic conception of truth is further analyzed in terms of Morton White’s holistic pragmatism. It is only by integrating the ethical dimension of truthfulness in the pragmatist understanding of truth that pragmatism can adequately deal with the challenge of maintaining both religious pluralism and a genuine commitment to the pursuit of truth.