globaltheology

Ninian Smart has identified 7 dimensions that are present in all religions to varying degrees and with varying significance attached to the different themes in the different religions. These might help to make sense of the need to draw the religions together in a Global Theology (though Smart was not that keen on such a project himself).

The dimensions are :

1. Practical and Ritual
2. Experiential and Emotional
3. Narrative or Mythic
4. Doctrinal and Philosophical
5. Ethical and Legal
6. Social and Institutional
7. Material

(Ninian Smart, The World’s Religions, Cambridge University Press)

Ninian Smart: Photo and article

But again, no matter how we approach the religions for the purposes of study, and no matter how similar they might seem in terms of their dimensions, we should be mindful of their differences in content. Some philosophers have said that the metaphor of ‘family’ helps to place the religions together in a relationship of kind.

Another form of ‘family’ classification is specified in a geo-cultural way. Hans Küng has said that the great religions of the world are like three great river systems:

* religions of Indian origin: Hinduism and Buddhism
* religions of Chinese origin: Confucianism and Daoism
* religions of Near Eastern origin: Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Moreover, each of these traditions exhibits an exemplary distinctive figure:

* Indian religions promote the mystic
* Chinese religions promote the wise person
* Near Easter religions promote the prophet

The classification could be widened, but the point can be accepted that while the religions are not reducible to one another they nevertheless belong together in some greater sense of what the religious vocation in life is all about.

(Hans Küng, Tracing the Way: Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions, Continuum, 2002).

Hans Kùng: photo and article See also Global Ethic Foundation