One of the things I have spent my summer sabbatical doing is pursuing some intriguing ideas I have learned from other denominations and other faith communities. One of these is a principle in Jainism, the religion that began in India more than 2600 years ago and inspired Mahatma Gandhi with ideals such as ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (soul-force). This principle is sometimes called "the Multiplicity of Viewpoints." Dr. Panna Shah, a family physician in Patchogue and an active member of the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum, explains that:

• Anekantvad (Non-absolutism) is a doctrine of multifaceted reality.
• Expression of truth is relative and non-absolute.
• Truth is expressed in many ways.
• Each viewpoint is true in its own limited sense.
• One requires viewpoints from all direction to understand the true expression

Dr. Girish Shah (no relation to Panna), a dentist who also is active in the LIMFF, adds that,

"The fundamental philosophical base of Jainism is the comprehensive view of reality. Jain philosophy points out that the ultimate reality is complex in character and in order to comprehend its nature, we must examine it from various points of view. Attending to a particular aspect of reality to the exclusion of other aspects may serve some specific purpose under certain circumstances, but it is only a partial vision of reality, Over-emphasis on one particular aspect of reality not only distorts reality but also leads to dogmatism, misunderstanding, and conflict. To recognize reality in all its completeness, one has to review a variety of aspects before arriving at any conclusion."

We Christians could stand to learn from these two Jains to explain our beliefs this clearly - and to encourage those who are not clergy to do some of the explaining. John Cogley, the influential Catholic layperson who edited Commonweal, argued in 1964 that just as Georges Clemenceau was right that war is too important to be left to the generals, Christian unity is too important to be left to theologians. And, I would add, interfaith dialogue is too important to be left to professional dialogians; medical professionals can do it at least as well as religious professionals.

Perhaps we Christians also need to learn from the Jains a Doctrine of Maybe: whenever you say anything about matters of ultimate meaning and purpose you should add the word maybe, as in "I think maybe the right thing to do is . . ." or "I think maybe God is like . . ." We often say that God is beyond our human capacity of description or comprehension. Saying maybe might help us to remember this and keep us humble. There is certainly affirmation of the Multiplicity of Viewpoints in the Bible; Jesus contrasted the ways of John the Baptist and himself, for example, and said that the Wisdom of God (Sophia) "is proven right by all her children." (Matthew 11:16-19; Luke 7:31-35). Christian Scripture may be unique among religions in preserving four separate, contradictory accounts of the life of our founder.

Ironically, the ancient wisdom of the Multiplicity of Viewpoints fits well with modern science. At both the sub-atomic level and the cosmic scale, things are pretty strange. Is light a wave or a particle? Both? Neither? Is space curved? And as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle says, if you know where a particle is, you cannot know where it is going. The Multiplicity of Viewpoints and a Doctrine of Maybe also are appealing to post-modern people, who tend to assume that there are at least two sides to every conflict and that a church that claims to be the One True Faith probably isn't. Those who want to preach effectively these days need both clarity about their beliefs and also a little humility.

Post-moderns also recognize that many Protestants assail Catholics for supposedly believing they are superior - but then act as if their own sect or denomination is. As the ecumenical movement has long insisted, we need each other's gifts, graces, and insights to become what God longs for us to be. And as Michael Kinnamon, who is now the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, insisted in The Vision of the Ecumenical Movement and How It Has Been Impoverished by Its Friends (Chalice Press, 2003), one of the reasons for having a council of churches is to "remind the denominations that they are not the church either - at least not the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic body of Christ that is our gift and calling."

It is possible that there are Jain extremists somewhere, but I have yet to meet one, and even the most zealous members of their community practice non-violence faithfully. I have never even heard, in fact, of a Jain doing the sort of thing that Christians often do when they are absolutely certain they have a monopoly on truth: blowing up a federal building in Oklahoma City, shooting up the US Holocaust Center, gunning down children rehearsing "Annie" at a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, killing a doctor while he hands out worship bulletins in his Lutheran church, etc., etc. ad nauseum.

Jains do have their own theological divisions, I am told, but I have yet to hear any of them claim to be the One True Faith the way so many Christians are sure that they belong to the One True Church - and then usually proceed to act in ways that convince the rest of us that they must be mistaken.

We are not the only faith community inclined to extremism, of course. I firmly believe the Doctrine of Sin, which holds that you were meant to be an original blessing to this world, but you have grown up in a society where everything and everyone is messed up - tells me that fanaticism is probably part of the human condition. And that, in turn, tells me that we need to learn from our neighbors who have figured out over the past 2600 years how to harness our tendency to take things too far, to direct our passions toward love and unity, mercy and justice, to uncover the original blessing that we were each meant to be.

Shalom/Salaam/Shanti/Pax,
Tom

A WORD OF THANKS
Sara C. Weiss, Director of Development