Abstract

The primary aim of this work is to address the central philosophical issues in the current debate regarding religious pluralism. These issues are examined by means of a critical evaluation of the two major schools of thought regarding the epistemology of pluralism, namely, analytic philosophy of religion and hermeneutics. ;Philosophers and theologians have traditionally felt compelled to offer a theoretical account of the diversity of belief that overcomes religious differences. This orientation in the study of religion is due in large part to the recognition that human understanding is necessarily conditioned by, and limited to, the specific cultural, historical and linguistic surroundings of the individual. However, a distinctive feature of religious claims is their universality of scope and absolute nature. How can a claim be both universal and necessarily limited to social, cultural and linguistic conditions? What is the philosophical status of such a claim? These are the central questions this dissertation seeks to address. ;The argument presented therein will attempt to reveal the limits of these epistemological treatments of religious diversity. Specifically, I will argue that certain philosophical accounts, in an effort to recognize radical pluralism, nonetheless either explicitly create a metaphysical account that transcends diversity, or implicitly smuggle metaphysical presuppositions into their accounts. In either case their initial epistemological claims are undermined. I will further argue that the incoherence manifested in these projects points philosophical inquiry toward how far the recognition of religious diversity must extend in order to be philosophically consistent. Throughout my discussion, I will incorporate the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein as the approach that best points the discussion of religious pluralism in the direction I believe it must proceed. Wittgenstein's approach to the heterogeneity of practices has significant application in the area of religious pluralism, specifically in negotiating a path between relativism and metaphysics