Ways of being religious

This pluralistic spirit is carried forward into Chapter 4, in which the author discusses four ways of practicing the religious life, the ways of knowledge, devotion, works, and mystical experience. He provides instructive examples of each of these ways, showing how each of them ties into an essential aspect of religion and how each of them affects and interfuses the others. These are modes of emphasis in religious life, not exclusionary options, but they provide ways of being religious that do justice to the differences of interest, need, personality, and gift among people of religious faith. The chapter concludes with discussion of the religious outlook of pluralism in its relation to the four ways of being religious.