Religious exclusivism, orreligious exclusivity, is the doctrine or belief that only one particularreligion orbelief system is true.[1] This is in contrast toreligious pluralism.
Some attempts have been made to portrayBuddhism in an exclusivistic framework by pointing out that the implication that those who do not accept the teachings of the Buddha, such as theNoble Eightfold Path, are destined to repeat the cycle of suffering through endless reincarnations; while those who practice the true way can reach enlightenment.[citation needed] Neo-Buddhist groups sometimes consider their tradition the true path to enlightenment and engage in strong evangelical efforts to influence those they consider to be in darkness.[citation needed]
However, many followers ofEastern religions are not exclusivist. For example, there are millions of Buddhists who would also consider themselves to followConfucianism orTaoism.[2]
Perry Schmidt-Leukel pointed out that the parable about the blind, which tries to describe the elephant in Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rûmi's Mesnevi, but whose original origin is in the Buddhist Pali Canon, is more related to religious exclusivity rather than pluralism in the Buddhist context. In the Buddhist context, the elephant refers to true dharma, the blind refers to those who have views opposing Buddha, the sighted person refers to the king who was Buddha in his previous life, and the clear statement of the text is that blind people cannot enter the path of true salvation, and this is stated in the text as blind people "cannot go beyond Samsara". Only Buddhas show the path to salvation and they will provide the means to cross the Samsara river. The parable ends with a very clear analogy: The light of other teachers is like the light of a firefly, whereas the Buddha's light shines like the sun: "When that illuminator appears, the light of the firefly goes out and shines no more."[3]
Some Christians[4] have argued that religious pluralism is an invalid or self-contradictory concept. Maximal forms of religious pluralism claim that all religions are equally true, or that one religion can be true for some and another for others. Most Christians hold this idea to belogically impossible from thePrinciple of contradiction.[5] The two largest Christian branches, theCatholic Church and theEastern Orthodox Church, both claim to be the "one true church" and that "outside the true Church there is no salvation";Protestantism, however, which has many different denominations, has no consistent doctrine in this regard, and has a variety of different positions regarding religious pluralism.
A number ofChristian denominations assert that they alone represent theone true church – the church to whichJesus gave his authority in theGreat Commission. The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, theOriental Orthodox communion and theAssyrian Church of the East each understands itself as the one and only original church. The claim to the title of the "one true church" relates to the first of theFour Marks of the Church mentioned in theNicene Creed: "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church". The concept ofschism somewhat moderates the competing claims between some churches – one can potentially repair schism. For example, the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches each regard the other as schismatic rather thanheretical.[6]
Many mainstream Protestants regard allbaptized Christians as members of a "spiritualChristian Church", which is not visible or institutional; this belief is sometimes referred to by the theological term "invisible church". Some other Christians, such asAnglicans ofAnglo-Catholic churchmanship, espouse a version ofbranch theory which teaches that the true Christian Church comprises Anglican, Eastern Orthodox,Old Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, ScandinavianLutheran, and Roman Catholic branches.[7]
TheBhagavad Gita warns against exclusivism:
यत्तु कृत्स्नवदेकस्मिन्कार्ये सक्तमहैतुकम्।
अतत्त्वार्थवदल्पं च तत्तामसमुदाहृतम्
But that which clings blindly to one idea as if it were all, without logic, truth or insight, that has its origin in Darkness.
— Bhagavad Gita, 18:22
Although Hindu sages such asSri Ramakrishna Paramhansa andSri Ramana Maharshi have the approach that all religions contain the truth and lead to the same ultimate goal, some Hindus have stated that this universalism is contrary to Hinduism.[8]
Muslims believe thatAllah revealed theQur'an to Muhammad. Other Islamic books considered to be revealed by God before the Quran, mentioned by name in the Quran are theTawrat (Torah,Hebrew:תּוֹרָה) revealed to theprophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel, theZabur (Psalms) revealed toDawud (David) and theInjil (theGospel) revealed toIsa (Jesus). The Quran also mentions God having revealed theScrolls of Abraham and theScrolls of Moses. Most Muslims, however, maintain thatprevious messages and revelations have beenpartially changed or corrupted over time[9] and consider the Quran to be the unaltered and thefinal revelation from Allah. Religious concepts and practices include thefive pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and followingIslamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, encompassing everything frombanking andwelfare, towarfare and the environment.[10][11][12]
In practice, however, neither the inclusion of Jews and Christians nor militant exclusivism toward "pagans" was always practiced. Trinitarian Christians were accused ofidolatry because of their veneration oficons and were also sometimes treated as polytheists because of the doctrines of theTrinity and theIncarnation.[13] Islam sees sincereJews,Christians, andSabians aspeople "of the Book".[citation needed]
Scholars of major Islamic sects have commented that the sect that achieved salvation in this hadith is the sect to which they belong. For example, Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Malaṭī, ‘Abd al-QāhirSunni scholars such as al-Baghdādī, Abū l-Muzaffar al-Isfarā'inī, al-Shahrastānī,Sunnis were the saved sect, according to an Ismā'īlī scholar such as Abū Tammām al-Khawārizmī,Ismailis, according to important Mu'tazili scholar Qāḍī 'Abd al-Jabbār the sect that achieved salvation was theMu'tazilites.[14]
MostJews believe that theGod ofAbraham is theone true God. The Jews believe the God of Abraham entered into acovenant with the ancientIsraelites, marking them as hisChosen People, giving them a mission to spread the concept of monotheism. Jews do not consider their chosenness to be a mark of superiority to other nations, but a responsibility to be an example of behavior for other nations to emulate.[15][16]
