ABSTRACT
The concept of syncretism has a distinct Christian overtone, which further complicates its application in the context of descriptions of Indian or other non-European religions. The first occurrence of the term syncretism in Western texts is in Plutarch’s (45-125 CE) Moralia, where he referred to the capability of the Cretans to reconcile their differences in the face of external threats. Erasmus (1469-1535 CE) uses this passage in his Adagia (1517-18) to illustrate how unity can be maintained despite dissenting religious
opinions. In the context of the theological debate among disagreeing Protestant denominations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the term obtained a negative meaning, indicating the corruption or contamination of the true faith in order to conciliate religious differences. Later, the term appears in anthropological and sociological descriptions of religious or cultural identities, mostly retaining its negative polarity, as opposed to the positive notion of cultural wholesomeness and purity.1 More recently, the term is used in the philosophical realm, in a more positive sense, in postmodern theories of Rorty and Derrida who argue for the acceptance of the plurality of ideological or hermeneutical truth. Echoes of the term syncretism can be found in the more neutral notion of hybridity that is often used in postmodern cultural studies to describe the interaction between different cultural traditions, life styles and worldviews as it occurs for instance in colonial settings or in the diaspora of colonised communities.
