Religious pluralism: Encyclopedia II - Religious pluralism - History of religious pluralism

Religious pluralism - History of religious pluralism

Some forms of religious pluralism have existed in the Indian Subcontinent since the rise of Buddhism around 500 BC and has widened in the course of several Muslim settlements (Delhi Sultanate 1276-1526 AD and the Mughal Empire 1526-1857 AD). In the 8th century, Zoroastrianism established in India as Zoroastrians fled from Persia to India in large numbers, where they were given refuge. The colonial phase ushered in by the British lasted until 1947 and furthered conversions to Christianity among low caste Hindus. In 1948 as many as 20,000 Jews Bene Jews and Cochin Jews lived in India, though most of them have since emigrated to Israel.

Religious pluralism - Antiquity

The polytheistic Roman empire saw the traditional Roman religion as one fundamentals of the Roman republic. They saw Roman virtues as an important link in their multiethnic empire. Being polytheistic, Romans did not mind if conquered nations went on worshipping their traditional gods, as long as they also venerated the Roman gods. In many cases this compromise was easily reached by identifying the traditional gods with similar Roman gods.

There was, though, a problem with people whose religion excluded the veneration of other Gods - especially the Jews and the Christians. As this concept was completely foreign to the Romans, it resulted in many conflicts arising from often unintended offenses, like putting a statue of an emperor in a prominent place in Jerusalem which resulted in a public revolt. Similarly difficult to understand for the Roman mindset was the attitude of Christians who rather chose torture or death instead of offering a little incense to the Roman emperor. From the Roman view, the refusal to venerate the Roman gods bore the risk of revenge from these gods on the whole population - one of the main motives of the persecution of Christians, in the second and third century.

The edict of Milan which decreed tolerance of Christianity was followed by a time of parallel existence of Christianity and paganism which was, though, far from an actual religious pluralism - the religion of the emperor was always at an advantage, and the Arian, trinitarian and pagan emperors in the fourth century saw it as perfectly legitimate to take measures against religious leaders who did not share their belief. From the fifth century on, the Roman empire was factually Christian to a point where Christianity was practically identified with the Roman empire.

Religious pluralism - Medieval times in Europe

After the breakdown of the Roman Empire in the West, in western Europe there was a small ruling class of various rather uncultivated pagan or arian Germanic tribes above a cultivated lower class majority of trinitarian Christians who eventually absorbed the upper class culturally and religiously. In the German tradition, the chief of the tribe was also religious leader, so conversion of the leaders (even if for political reasons) was followed in many cases by Christianization of the tribe - with the chief of the tribe being now the de facto head of the Christian church. There were quite some instances of parallel pagan and Christian religion, but tolerance of old or new religion was up to the personal preference of the local lord.

The tradition of the head of the tribe as head of the church was continued in the beginning by the local kings and Western emperors with the king and emperor holding by virtue of office the right of investiture of bishops and also of deciding in religious matters - Charlemagne, e.g., took the pope to task because the pope did not use the filioque in the Nicene Creed. The religion of the ruler was the official religion of the people and, again, any tolerance of foreigners or remnants of pagans was up to the present ruler. The unity of religion was generally seen as a prerequisite for any worldly state - a divergent religion was in the consequence not regarded just as a religious problem but also an action against state and ruler punishable by criminal law.

In the high middle ages, the worldly powers clashed with the power of the pope on the matter of deciding about religious questions - while the details varied by country, the overall result was that spiritual power had now the last word on religious doctrine, while worldly rulers still saw divergent religions as danger for the state. In actions against sects like Cathars and Waldenses, church and state power worked together, as well as in the Crusades against Islam.

Religious pluralism - The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation confronted western Europe with the fact that a region which had for centuries been religiously uniform was within a few years deeply divided regarding denomination. Germany, France and the Netherlands were ravaged by wars between Catholics and Protestants, in Great Britain Protestant and Catholic rulers persecuted the other side. When the dust settled after the religious wars, the general rule was "cuius regio, eius religio" - the countries and principalities had to adopt the religion of their respective ruler, while divergent people were left with the choice between submission or emigration.

Restrictions on smaller Protestant sects who disagreed with the national churches in these countries prompted such groups as the Pilgrim Fathers to seek freedom in North America, although many historians have noted that when these groups became the majority they sometimes sought to deny this freedom to Jews and Roman Catholics.

Religious pluralism - Enlightenment

In the second half of the seventeenth century, partially out of being tired with the religious wars, partially influenced by early enlightenment, several countries adopted some sort of tolerance for other denominations, e.g. the Peace of Westphalia 1653 or the Edict of Tolerance in England in 1689.

Protestant and freethinking philosophers like John Locke and Thomas Paine, who argued for tolerance and moderation in religion, were strongly influential on the Founding Fathers, and the modern religious freedom and equality underlying religious pluralism in the United States are guaranteed by First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states:

In the United States religious pluralism can be said to be overseen by the secular state, which guarantees equality under law between different religions, whether these religion have a handful of adherents or many millions. The state also guarantees the freedom of those who choose not to belong to any religion.

While the United States had to begin with no dominant religion or denomination, this was very different in European countries who have, without exception, a history with one dominant Christian denomination whose influence on their culture is felt until present times. Enlightenment in Europe did not so much promote the rights of minority religions but the rights of individuals to express beliefs diverging from the mainstream religion of the country, while belonging to that religion or being outside of it. While European countries generally went the way of gradually increasing the rights for minority denominations and religions, until today the stress is more on the freedom of belief of the individual and the rights of religious organizations are often limited by the state to prevent them intruding upon the individual religious freedom.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History of religious pluralism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki