[Music] in this class we will continue our exploration of pluralism by examining the philosophy of jonathan sachs in his philosophy he deals with the plethora of issues the relationship between religion and science the theological principles of modern orthodoxy theological challenges of the holocaust and moral and social philosophy but he is best known for and most innovative regarding the question of pluralism particularly religious pluralism he wrote extensively on the issue of the relationship between different religion in his most controversial book dignity of difference which was first published in 2002 let us begin by identifying the cardinal
problem that sex philosophy is addressing the problem is the social moral and spiritual crisis that western civilization is undergoing since the 1960s which has intensified in the last decade it concerns the fraying of the moral fabric that holds together societies the result is high rates of loneliness anxiety drug abuse and suicide it also manifests itself in the divisiveness of political discourse the complete erosion of civil discourse and the disregard for truth he sees all of these as signs of an excessive individualism that has spread throughout western society and culture we privilege the eye over the
we and we are most interested in our own personal pleasure than in contributing to the common good according to sax this toxic individualism has deeply damaged the glue that binds us together as a community and society and has robbed us of meaning that is essential for individual flourish flourishing the question then is how can we revert from i back to we and get back social cohesion and provide a system of meaning in addressing this problem sax introduces religion as the mechanism which will bring about this change he argues that it is a religion which allows
for the formation of moral communities beyond the confines of small groups he believes that human beings have an innate moral sense and it displays itself in small groups and family networks a parent has a natural sense of compassion for their children and we are generally willing to be altruistic to those who we interact with and will reciprocate our good deeds but you need religion for larger social frameworks on this point he quotes emil durkheim who was a french sociologist and philosopher durkheim viewed religion as one of the most important of social institutions and he believed
that its origin was due to its ability to bring human beings together he coined the phrase collective effort vince since which refers to social opportunities when individuals are brought together in order to perform a religious ritual at these moments the group is formed and by participating in the same action which serves to generate a collective consciousness individuals that brought are are forged into a group but religion's role in binding people also has a negative social implication for sex and it could be a force in opposition to morality it binds but it also blinds and this
is the terminology of jonathan hate who um who sacks quotes he so sex confronts the tendency of religion to divide us and even be and religion is also even violent and this is a central problem of sex and he addresses it particularly in chapter three of his work the dignity of difference and that this is the readings assignments for this week now in this chapter he begins by noting the deeply dangerous potential of religious belief as well as other ideologies and races when it is framed as exclusivistic that is only my belief allows one to
be saved and redeemed and actually even to be human and others should therefore be exterminated he notes that this link is already present in the opening chapters of genesis where the first act of worship is followed by frat recite killing brothers how do we grapple with this seeming link between religious faith and violence to grapple with this question he thinks deeply about the relationship between universalism and particularism now one of the reasons that the notion of universalism is attractive is that it seemingly confers humanity and dignity on everyone in a seemingly non-exclusionary manner it therefore
is superior to particularism which is equated with tribalism that fosters hatred of the other who is not part of our particular association sacks believe that the prioritizing of the universal over the particular is nevertheless a horrible mistake this is a mistake which has plagued western culture and society since the time of plato and and that's the title of this third chapter exercising plato's ghost now plato dismissed particularize particulars and he valorized the universal from plato this was passed on to christianity and it is at the foundation of our modern culture thus in the previous chapter
of this work sacs criticize globalism which is a contemporary form of universalism and globalism believes that we have advanced to the point that we can overcome tribalism and other differences that divide us and valorizing the particular rabbi sachs is not denying that universalism has a certain truth and we must see ourselves on some level as members of all of humanity and he and he he declares and i'm quoting here we are members of the universal human family and thus of the noahide covenant with all mankind there are indeed moral universals the sanctity of life the
dignity of the human person the right to be free to be no man's slave or the object of someone else's violence end of quote but we also rabbi sac adds have duties obligations and loyalties to a small group for a number of reasons here he adds the in the the issue of particularism firstly he believes that the universalistic approach to morality is problematic from an educational standpoint and i'm quoting the universality of moral concern is not something we learn by being universal but by being particular because we know it is what it is to be
a parent loving our children not children in general we understand what it is for someone else somewhere else to be a parent loving his or her children not ours there is no road to human solidarity that does not begin with moral particularity by coming to know what it means to be a child a parent a neighbor a friend we learn to love humanity by loving specific human beings end of quote that is we can't we cannot love and feel empathy and sympathy for an abstract human being but only for concrete human beings who we have
some actual attachment to secondly another reason for particularism is human beings are embedded beings and they are an inelectably part of a community nation or culture humanity is such that we speak different languages and have developed different cultures that evolved and shift in response to our historical experiences the attempt to go beyond this is to deny something essential about humanity it fails to realize that we are situated cells and we are embedded in a series of particular attachments such as family community people and culture thirdly another argument for particularism universalism is grounded in the false
belief that there exists only one valid truth and this is both mistaken and dangerous lycra of cook and sax quotes from cook in this context sax embraces epistemological pluralism and argues that human beings can only grasp a sliver of the divine infant of truth he therefore views each religion and here we're getting into religious pluralism as possessing a particular and non-comprehensive truth and religions should be viewed as complementary to one another rather than antagonistic and this was a controversial view that was attacked by certain rabbinic leaders now this leads sacks to argue that judaism is
a monotheistic religion that balances properly the commitment to universalism and particularism it certainly rejects tribalism and argues for a universal god but not a universal religion and therefore does not begin its story with jews but with humanity therefore we arrive at particularism rather than universalism he sees this message embedded in the story of the tower of bavel their sin was their desire to arrive at an artificial unity which is in opposition to the divinely created diversity god therefore does not limit salvation to jews and god is also the god of non-jews for sex this is
the most important message of judaism and the hebrew bible in judaism we have a particular relationship between members of our faith and ourselves and god which is grounded in love love is always a particular relation since we are embedded in individuals with loyalty devotion and attachment to family friends community nation and culture but it doesn't come to exclude other loving relations or are concerned for the other this is the essence of rabbi sax's religious pluralism as attempt to conceive religion in a way that binds its members without excluding others [Music] you
