Tolerance
When writing my essay on John Hick (see below) about two or three years ago, I think I had it in mind that I should be defending orthodoxy – or at least that I shouldn’t be agreeing with Hick. (Maybe I wasn’t the only one)-
Perhaps it was with this in mind that I pounced upon the argument that I found in a book by Clark Pinnock pointing out the intolerance of tolerance. The point has some value, I think - recent stories in the right wing press about ‘political correctness gone mad’ illustrate the point. Likewise, it’s not possible to harmonise contradictory belief systems without compromising them to the point that much of their distinctiveness is lost. Thus, the intolerant, exclusivist, elements of a given belief system are not tolerated. Such elements are unacceptable and discounted.
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However, I think this is a bit of a cheap shot and overly simplistic.
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Firstly, the argument seems to assume that Hick and his ilk are going around hitting people with a big stick telling them to be more tolerant. I think it’s probably more accurate to say that they challenge people’s preconceived ideas about their religion and its relation to others.
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Secondly, I don’t think it would bother Hick all that much that his way of looking at things isn’t entirely tolerant. His whole point in affirming the value of all religions entails the corollary that all religions are mistaken to some extent too – he doesn’t try to disguise this. Nevertheless, I think he would see tolerance as a good thing and his system of belief is, essentially, a tolerant one. Compared with the various kinds of fundamentalism that so easily invoke anathemas, or worse, death threats and ‘holy wars’ it’s easy to see that pluralism is, basically, tolerant.
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Moreover, speaking about Christianity – because that’s what I think I know about – it’s not uncommon to come across evangelicals for whom certain questions are off limits, and evangelical leaders who suppress the awkward questions; probably because they don’t know the answers. Most of us raised in such traditions are conditioned not to give any real thought to such questions. I think it’s fair to say that pluralism is more tolerant than that. It might be surprising then that Clark Pinnock criticises pluralism on such grounds considering the abuse which I imagine he has been subjected to from fellow evangelicals over his ‘heretical’ views.
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I think tolerance is a good thing but at the same time it's not necessarily intolerant to disagree with someone on issues of faith. It's what we do wiht that disagreement that marks us out as tolerant or intolerant.
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I feel like Jerry Springer bringing the moral at the end of his show now - i can't tolerate that show!
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Okay, now we can talk about kissing again
posted by Rowland @ Monday, November 14, 2005
2 comments
