{"id":95026,"date":"2022-05-08T22:59:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T04:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=95026"},"modified":"2022-05-13T21:08:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T03:08:19","slug":"an-important-part-of-my-approach-to-other-faiths-and-worldviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/05\/an-important-part-of-my-approach-to-other-faiths-and-worldviews.html","title":{"rendered":"An important part of my approach to other faiths and worldviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"UC<\/a>
The University of California at Berkeley is, in many ways, a marvelous place (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Well over three decades ago now, I spent a summer in Berkeley, California, participating in a small seminar led by the preeminent student of comparative religions Huston Smith<\/a>\u00a0(1919-2016) and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was an extraordinary and memorable experience on many levels \u2014 not the least of which was being able to attend a complete performance of Wagner\u2019s \u201cRing Cycle\u201d over at the San Francisco Opera during my stay in Berkeley \u2014 but I\u2019ll focus on just one aspect of the whole right now:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting to know Professor Smith opened the way for me to be slightly involved with him \u2014 alongside Alan Godlas, Barbara von Schlegell, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr<\/a> \u2014 in his revision of the chapter on Islam in his perennial classic and oftimes bestseller The Religions of Man<\/i>, which had originally appeared in 1958.\u00a0 (Among the features of the book that were revised was its title, which became, in the new edition, the less apparently-sexist The World\u2019s Religions<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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The World\u2019s Religions<\/i> is a remarkable book.\u00a0 Not so much for its dates and facts \u2014 other volumes in the field offer lots of information, and sometimes far more \u2014 but for its ability to take readers into what Huston Smith sees as the heart of each of the faiths he treats.\u00a0 I have to confess that his was the first discussion of Hinduism \u2014 a faith (or, perhaps more properly, a family of faiths) for which I\u2019ve always had a uniquely difficult time seeing the appeal \u2014 that left me genuinely understanding why (apart from culture and tradition) a person might want to be a Hindu.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we were discussing it one day, Huston told me that one of the things about the book that made him most proud and gave him the most satisfaction was the fact that he had been accused, at various times, of being a covert and sneaky advocate of each and every one of the faiths that the book discusses.<\/p>\n

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He considered that high praise indeed, and I tend to agree.<\/p>\n

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One day, during my studies in Egypt more than forty years ago, I spoke at length with a Muslim chemistry professor at the University of Cairo. He was astonished when he learned that, although was studying Arabic and Islam, I was still a Christian.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDo you really,\u201d he asked, incredulously, \u201cbelieve that God had a Son, and that he allowed that Son to be murdered in order to buy himself off?\u201d<\/p>\n

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After expressing some reservations about how he had expressed the doctrine of the atonement, I replied that, yes, I did believe something rather like that that.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOh!\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cHow can any intelligent person believe in such nonsense?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, the fact is that highly intelligent people have<\/i> accepted Christianity. (Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Kierkegaard, C. S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft, Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, N. T. Wright, and Nicholas Wolterstorff are among those who come immediately to mind.)<\/p>\n

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But it was thought-provoking to find that my most sacred beliefs seemed insanely ludicrous to a highly educated outsider. It was enlightening to find Christianity, for once, in the minority, and Christian assumptions questioned by another theist as less than self-evident.<\/p>\n

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How many times have I heard people say things like, \u201cHow can any intelligent person believe in Islam?\u201d or \u201cHow can any intelligent person be a Catholic?\u201d Yet people like al-Ghazali and Muhammad Iqbal and Ibn Khaldun have been Muslims, and the Catholic Church has claimed the loyalty of such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas and Cardinal Newman and G. K. Chesterton and Jacques Maritain and Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) and Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reflecting on this, and on my own decades of experience as an Islamicist, I long ago formulated what might be termed Peterson\u2019s First Rule for the Study of Other Religions and Worldviews: If a substantial number of sane and intelligent people believe something that seems to you utterly without sense, and especially if they have done so over some considerable length of time, the problem probably lies with you<\/i>, for not grasping what it is about that belief that a lucid, informed, and reasonable person might find plausible and satisfying.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until you understand why people of good sense, learning, mental health, sound intelligence, solid ethics, and a desire for truth find a particular worldview convincing and worthy of allegiance \u2014 and I include among \u201cworldviews\u201d here not only religions but atheism and such secular ideologies as Marxism \u2014 you haven\u2019t really understood it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to accept<\/em> that other worldview, but, if you\u2019re serious about understanding it, you really have to grasp<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a corollary: \u00a0If you encounter a faith or worldview that claims the allegiance of a large and diverse group of people and has done so for at least a few generations, you should not lightly conclude from the fact that you find that faith or worldview obviously wrong that its adherents lack good sense or learning, that they\u2019re stupid or mentally ill or immoral, or that they don\u2019t care about the truth. \u00a0If you make that assumption, you\u2019re almost certain to be wrong.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I would like to call your attention once again to the 2022 annual conference of the International Association for Near-Death Studies<\/a>, which will be located in Salt Lake City from 31 August through 4 September.\u00a0 I\u2019m scheduled to deliver a paper at the conference on Saturday, 3 September.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edited to add new information:<\/strong>\u00a0 Dr. Lynn Johnson, who comments from time to time on this blog, will also be speaking at the conference \u2014 on Saturday, 10:15 AM. He will speak on how NDEs can disrupt one\u2019s life and how support groups can provide a place to testify and be accepted.\u00a0 He\u2019ll also discuss how two friends helped him to start a support group in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In my jet-lagged delirium, I\u2019ve just come across this prayer, which was written by the great Dominican philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and which I like very much:<\/p>\n

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\u201cGive us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Well over three decades ago now, I spent a summer in Berkeley, California, participating in a small seminar led by the preeminent student of comparative religions Huston Smith\u00a0(1919-2016) and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. \u00a0 It was an extraordinary and memorable experience on many levels \u2014 not the 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