Relativism and Religion

This collection of recent essays confronts, from widely disparate perspectives, fundamental questions about the epistemology and semantics of religious claims. Is there any way, apart from a particular religious tradition, of knowing that the distinctive

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Relativism. and Religion Edited by

Charles M. Lewis

Professor of Philosophy Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Palgrave Macmillan

ISBN 978-1-349-24134-7 ISBN 978-1-349-24132-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24132-3 RELATIVISM AND RELIGION

Copyright© 1995 by Wake Forest University Extracts in Chapter 5 from Hans Frei, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, copyright© Yale University Press 1974, reproduced by permission of the publisher. Softcover reprint of the hardcover l st edition 1995 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address: St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1995

ISBN 978-0-312-12392-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Relativism and religion I edited by Charles M. Lewis. p. em. Essays presented at the ninth James Montgomery Hester seminar. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-12392-5 1. Knowledge, Theory of (Religion) 2. Relativity. I. Lewis, Charles M., 1941BL51.R343 1995 94-43978 200' .1-dc20 GP

Contents Notes on the Contributors

vii

Introduction

ix

1

Where are the Gods Now? D. Z. Phillips

1

2

A Prayer for Understanding Martin Hollis

16

3

Religious Pluralism and Religious Relativism Philip L. Quinn

35

4

The Justificationist Roots of Relativism I. C. Jaroie

52

5

Will Narrativity Work as Linchpin? Reflections on the Hermeneutic of Hans Frei Nicholas Wolterstorff

71

CONCLUDING RESPONSES

109

Comments Philip L. Quinn

111

Response Nicholas Wolterstorff

119

Responses l. C. Jaroie

125

Perspectives Martin Hollis

129

Philosophers' Clothes D. Z. Phillips

135

Index

154

v

Notes on the Contributors Martin Hollis is Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He was editor of Ratio from 1980 through 1988 and has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1990. Among his books are Rational Economic Man, Rationality and Relativism, and

The Cunning of Reason.

Ian Jarvie is Professor of Philosophy at York University, Toronto. He is managing editor of Philosophy of the Social Sciences and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His books include The Revolution in Anthropology, Concepts and Society, and Thinking about

Society: Theory and Practice.

D. Z. Phillips is Professor of Philosophy at the University College of Swansea and Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate School. Among his books are The Concept of Prayer, Religion Without Explanation, and Faith after Foundationalism. Philip L. Quinn is John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Divine Commands and Moral Requirements and numerous articles and reviews. Nicholas Wolterstorff is Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Phi