ABSTRACT

Many theists will object, especially if they spring from appeals to exclusive revelation. In particular, the ultimate reality is presented in a substantialist way in Neo-Advaita: this does not seem to square with Theravadin nirvana or with Mahayana sunyata. Religions seem to be linked together not by an essentialist definition but rather by family resemblance. Together with the emergence of new religions arising from the meeting of traditions and the fluidity of society with its attendant anguishes, all this dictates a multiplication of sub-traditions and traditions just when the major traditions may be simplifying themselves through the aforementioned convergence. The way in which religious sub-traditions meld with secular ideologies will remind us that the problem of the truth of worldviews is wider than that of the truth of religions. An open Christian, influenced by the model of heavenly Love, and the Buddhist, moved by the example of self-sacrificing compassion, may have differing value-systems.