It’s easy to say that all religions are one. It’s easy to say that we all believe in the same God. It’s easy to say that we all want to be in Heaven.
It’s also false, argues Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero in his new book, God is not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World – and Why Their Differences Matter.
Unlike the William Blakes, Mohandas Gandhis, Huston Smiths, and Karen Armstrongs of the world, Dr. Prothero says that the essence of each religion is profoundly different.
What religions do have in common is a conviction that there is something wrong with the world. For Christianity, the problem is sin. For Islam, it is pride. For Buddhism, it is suffering. For Judaism, it is evil.
Each religion offers a solution to what ails the world. In Christianity, the solution to sin is faith in Christ, which brings individual salvation to Heaven. In Islam, the solution is submission to Allah, which brings paradise. In Buddhism, the solution is awareness, which brings nirvana. In Judaism, the solution is God’s law, which brings justice in this world.
Each religion offers a technique for moving from problem to solution. In Christianity, it is faith and good works. In Islam, it is the five pillars (submission to Allah, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage). In Buddhism, it is the Noble Eightfold Path (which includes meditation and chanting). In Judaism, it is practice of God’s Law (including the laws of the Sabbath, diet, and sex).
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Stephen Prothero says that he believes in the Christian Trinity, but that other religions do not. There are “trinities,” of sorts, in various faiths. My e-book at www.suprarational.org summarizes five of them.
Mahayana and Vajrayana vehicles of Buddhism speak of Trikaya, or three bodies: Nirmanakaya is the Buddha in human form, Sambhogakaya is celestial Buddha and Dharmakaya is the formless essence, or Buddha-nature. The Theravada primarily addresses the historic Buddha. The “Three Jewels” are the Buddha, the dharma (his teachings) and the sangha (the community of monks and nuns).
Christianity has its Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit referring to God, Jesus Christ and their spiritual bond of unity (some say the Godhead). Interpretation of the essential nature of each, and their relationship, differed among the churches. In Christian mysticism, the three ways of the spiritual life are the purgative in being purified from sin, the illuminative in true understanding of created things, and the unitive in which the soul unites with God by love.
Hinduism’s trimurti are the threefold activities of Brahman: in Brahma as creator, in Vishnu as sustainer and in Shiva as destroyer. Saccidananda are the triune attributes or essence of Brahman: sat, being, cit, consciousness and ananda, bliss. The three major schools of yoga are bhakti, devotion, and jnana, knowledge and karma, the way of selfless action. Raja yoga can apply to, and integrate, all three in mental and spiritual concentration.
In Islam, nafs is the ego-soul, qalb is heart and ruh is spirit. Heart is the inner self [soul], hardened when it is turned toward ego and softened when it is polished by dhikr, remembrance of the spirit of Allah. This is a three-part foundation for Sufi psychology. Initiation guides them from shari`a, religious law, along tariqa, the spiritual path, to haqiqa, interior reality. It is a gradual unveiling of the Real.
In the Kabbalah of Judaism, sefirot – sparks from the divine – have three fulcrums to balance the horizontal levels of the Tree of Life: Da`at (a pseudo-sefirot) is knowledge combining understanding and wisdom; Tiferet is beauty, the midpoint of judgment and loving kindness; Yesod is the foundation for empathy and endurance. They also vertically connect, through the supreme crown, the infinite and transcendent Ein Sof with its kingdom in the immanent Shekhinah.
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