Describing a religion in its own terms

Program / Course 18: World Religions / Lesson 1.1

What you will learn

• State the rule of describing a religion so that its own adherents would recognize the description.
• Tell the difference between a religion’s self-description and a description given by its critics.
• Notice internal diversity and avoid treating one voice as the voice of a whole tradition.
• Apply a simple checklist to any account of a religion, including your own.

The big idea

To describe a religion fairly, begin with the way its own followers describe it. A fair account uses their terms, their texts and their stated reasons, and it would make sense to them even if they disagreed with some of the emphasis. This is not the same as agreeing with the religion. A person can describe Islam or Buddhism accurately and still believe that Christianity is true and that the other religion is mistaken. Honest disagreement requires first knowing what the other side actually says.

Key terms

Self-description

The way the followers of a religion explain their own beliefs, practices and reasons, in their own words.

Caricature

A distorted picture that exaggerates the weakest or strangest features of a view so that it is easy to dismiss.

Straw man

A weak version of someone’s argument that is easy to defeat, offered in place of what they actually argue.

Steelman

The strongest and most careful version of a view that you can state, given before you respond to it.

Internal diversity

The real differences of belief and practice found inside one religion, such as Sunni and Shia Islam or Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.

Adherent

A person who belongs to and follows a particular religion.

Apologetics

The reasoned defense of a faith. Christian apologetics defends Christian claims, and other religions have their own versions.

Background

Many people learn about other religions from the wrong source. They hear about Judaism from someone who left it, about Islam from news reports, or about Hinduism from a joke. Even careful Christians have sometimes learned about other faiths only from Christian books written to argue against them. Those books may contain real arguments, but they are poor places to learn what a religion is.

The Christian tradition itself gives a reason for care. The Ten Commandments forbid bearing false witness against a neighbor (Exodus 20:16). Most Christians have understood this to cover more than courtroom lies. It reaches to how a person speaks about those who disagree with him or her. A fair description of a rival belief is one way of obeying that commandment.

Fairness has a second purpose. A Christian who wants to explain why Christianity is true has to answer the objections that thoughtful people actually raise. If the picture of the other side is false, the answer will miss, and the other person will rightly feel unheard.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Use the recognition test

The first rule is simple. When you have written a description of a religion, ask whether a thoughtful follower of that religion would read it and say, “Yes, that is what members of this faith believe, and roughly why.” If the answer would be no, the description needs work. The test does not require that they find it complete or that they like every sentence. It requires that they find it recognizable.

The same test applies to Christianity. A Christian reading an atheist’s summary of the creeds should be able to say, “That is not exactly how it is usually put, but that is what the creeds mean.” Fair treatment is something Christians ask for, and so it is something they owe.

Step 2: Go to the primary sources and to living adherents

A primary source is a text or testimony from inside the tradition: the Torah and Talmud for Judaism, the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet for Islam, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita for many Hindus, the Buddhist sutras, the Guru Granth Sahib for Sikhs. Reading selections of these in a translation that adherents accept is the best way to hear a tradition speak.

Texts alone are not enough. Religions are lived. A Jewish family keeping the Sabbath, a Muslim praying five times a day, a Buddhist sitting in meditation: these show what the books mean in practice. When possible, learn from books written by members of the tradition, and from the way members describe themselves, not only from outside scholars.

Step 3: Keep the diversity in view

No religion speaks with one voice. Christianity itself is divided among Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant bodies that disagree on authority, the sacraments and more. The same is true elsewhere. Islam has Sunni, Shia and Sufi streams. Judaism has Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and other movements. Hinduism has no single founder or single central authority. Buddhism has several large schools.

When you write, say which part of the tradition you mean. “Muslims believe” is safe when nearly all Muslims agree, as they do on the oneness of God. It is unsafe for matters where the groups differ. A good habit is to write “most Sunni Muslims hold” or “Reform Jews generally say” when that is the real situation.

Step 4: Compare beliefs with beliefs, and ideals with ideals

A common unfairness is to compare the best of your own tradition with the worst of another: your religion’s teaching against their religion’s worst historical behavior. Fairness compares like with like. Compare teaching to teaching, saints to saints, and failures to failures.

Christianity has its own record of violence, prejudice and hypocrisy, including treatment of Jews over many centuries. An honest student admits this while still being free to hold that Christian teaching is true. Truth claims are tested by arguments and evidence, not by who has behaved better in history.

Step 5: Separate description from evaluation

First describe, then evaluate. In the descriptive stage, write the account in the voice of the tradition, saying “Buddhists teach that” and giving their reasons. In the evaluative stage, say where you agree, where you disagree and why. Mixing the two produces a description that is secretly an argument, and readers can tell.

A Christian may conclude that another religion is mistaken on important points. That conclusion is allowed. The rule is that it must come after a fair hearing and must be aimed at what the religion actually teaches.

1. Would a thoughtful follower of this religion say that my description is what they believe?
2. Did I take my information from the tradition’s own texts and members, or from its critics?
3. Have I said which branch or school I mean, or did I speak for a whole religion?
4. Am I comparing the best of my own tradition with the worst of theirs?
5. Have I stated their strongest reasons, and not only the ones that are easy to answer?
6. Where do I feel a pull to make this tradition look foolish, and why?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Second Vatican Council, in its declaration Nostra Aetate, urged Catholics to regard other religions with sincere respect and to recognize what is true and holy in them, while continuing to proclaim Christ as the way, the truth and the life. Catholic teaching thus joins respectful listening to a firm confession of the Christian claim.

Orthodox

Orthodox Christians hold that the fullness of truth is found in the Orthodox Church. Many Orthodox writers also stress humility and a refusal to judge the hearts of others, saying that the church knows where the Spirit is but cannot say where the Spirit is not. Orthodox life has also included long periods of coexistence with Muslim and Jewish neighbors, with both friendship and conflict.

Protestant

Protestants differ widely. Many evangelical Protestants stress that Christ alone saves, and they treat accurate understanding of other faiths as part of faithful witness, as in Peter’s call to give an answer “with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). Some mainline Protestants place more weight on dialogue and shared work. All sides appeal to the command against false witness.

Scholarly study of religion

Scholars in religious studies generally try to describe each tradition without taking a side on its truth. Some scholars argue that a complete neutrality is impossible, because every observer has a starting point. Even so, most agree that a good account should be checked against how insiders describe their own faith.

Why it matters

Fair description is the base of every later lesson in this course. A student who cannot state Judaism, Islam or Buddhism so that a follower agrees will not be able to compare, to disagree honestly, or to speak with a neighbor of another faith. It also protects the student from the pleasant but false feeling of victory that comes from defeating a weak opponent.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. What is one thing you were once told about another religion that you later learned was wrong or incomplete?
2. How would you feel reading a summary of your own beliefs written by someone who rejects them? What would make it fair?
3. Is it possible to be both fully convinced of one religion and fully fair to another? What makes this difficult?
4. Where do you usually get your information about religions you do not follow?

Independent assignment

A recognition test on your own belief

In your own notebook, write about 300 words describing the beliefs of a religion or tradition you do not hold, using only what you already know. Then list the sources of that knowledge. Next, read a short self-description by a member of that tradition (a creed, a statement of faith or an introductory essay by an adherent). Revise your paragraph and write 100 words on what you got wrong or left out. Keep the notebook for later lessons.

Further study

• Huston Smith, The World’s Religions Read the introduction and note how the author describes each tradition in terms its followers use.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Religious Diversity (Pluralism) Read for the philosophical questions that arise once many religions are described fairly.
• Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the sections on the Church and non-Christians to see an official Catholic statement of respect joined to a Christian claim.
• Exodus 20:16 The commandment against false witness.
• 1 Peter 3:15 Give an answer with meekness and fear.
• Acts 17:22 Paul begins by describing what he has observed in Athenian religion.