One More Ecumenical Perspective: Religious Inclusivism
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) was a follower of Sri Ramakrishna, the leading nineteenth-century Indian mystic and spiritual leader. In 1893, Vivekananda traveled to the United States to attend the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, and then in England and Europe. He made quite an impression there, speaking with wit and great intelligence. Vivekananda espoused the virtues of Hinduism for being “inclusivist” and how it accepted “all religions as true” save for those that make exclusivist claims about other religions.
When he addressed the audience, he said:
Sisters and Brothers of America … I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation that has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to a religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings. “As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”
Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilizations and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecution with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
Several days later Vivekananda spoke again:
Why we Disagree
I will tell you a little story. You have just heard the eloquent speaker who has just finished say, “Let us cease from abusing each other,” and he was very sorry that there should be always so much variance.
But I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on to become a little sleek and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the seas came and fell into the well.
“Where are you from?”
“I am from the sea.”
“The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?” and he took a leap from one side of the well to another.
“My friend,” said the frog of the sea, “how do you compare the sea with your little well?”
Then the frog took another leap and asked, “Is your sea so big?'
“What nonsense you speak to compare the sea with your well!”
“Well, then,” said the frog of the well, “nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out.”
That has been the difficulty all the while.
I am a Hindu. I am sitting on my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.
It cannot be denied that an invaluable achievement of Ecumenism has, at times, been the rapport, cooperation, collegiality, and philosophical and practical discussion that developed between the main Christian churches since the mid-twentieth century. Progress could be counted among the mergers of individual churches, such as the first union between Episcopal and Nonepiscopal churches. In 1960, a proposal was made to bring together the American Methodist, Episcopal, United Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ denominations.
It was Edmund Schlink, a leading German Lutheran theologian in the ecumenical movement, who offered a guiding principle by insisting that Christian ecumenists focus on Christ, not their separate church organizations. There are larger, overarching issues over which there should be no disagreement, despite the petty differences between denominations. “No one's spiritual myopia should come at the cost of the larger truths of the faith,” Schlink said wisely. “The idea is to see the risen Christ at work in the lives of various Christians or in diverse churches.”
