ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 provides discussion and analysis of four major options of choice available to the seekers and practitioners of religious faith: monotheism, polytheism, contemplative monism, and religious naturalism. The four options discussed in this chapter should be kept constantly in mind as ways of responding to the assurances, demands, and empowerments – as well as the ultimate, ineliminable mysteries – of religious thought and religious life. Keeping such options constantly in mind and recognizing them as wholehearted responses to the towering mysteries of religious faith informs the pluralistic outlook argued for in this chapter and elsewhere. This outlook is not only one of respectful toleration of religious differences but also one of active investigation into alternative religious views so as to learn from these views and from their adherents how to critique, inform, and enhance one’s own ever-developing life of faith.
