spirituality

Keith Ward, Emeritus Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University

In a rather vague sense, it could be said that many religions aim at the same goal, if you are thinking of a state of supreme being, compassion, wisdom and bliss. But when you analyse religious beliefs more closely, it becomes clear that the goal is described in very different ways.

Many Buddhists, for example, deny that there is a supreme spiritual being, as do many Pagans, Jains and exponents of some forms of Sankhya Yoga. Some Christians have a very personalist idea of God, while other traditions (e.g.Advaita) insist that personalism is a subordinate idea which is to be transcended. So when considered in detail, the goals are very different - if that were not so, why would there be so many conflicts in religion?

Nevertheless, it could be argued that many religions, though they do not AIM AT precisely the same goal, do LEAD to the same goal, in that they will discover the spiritual truth in the end. You would still have to say, however, that many of their present ideas are mistaken. You might even say that all are mistaken in some way - which seems to be John Hick's position. There is a specific discussion of this in my forthcoming The Case for Religion (Oneworld, March 2004).