Haight is a theology professor at union university. He taught at Weston Jesuit my alma mater until being silenced by our (the catholic church's) current Pope for his book Jesus symbol of God.
Below are how he sets up the framework for a postmodern understanding of pluralism.(396)
1) Historical Consciousness-
-all our thoughts, ideas and values have roots in a particular time and space.
-(ie. each religion makes sense in its own time and context)
2) Cosmic Consciousness-
-the size and age of reality enforces relativity
3)Positive appreciation for religious treasures of each tradition
-distinct revelations of reality
4)It is positive that religions deliberately coexist and actively interact with each other.
while this may make many people uncomfortable in reading this text and in understanding the hearts of my friends what we are suggesting is a movement of humility. humbly we recognize that our knowledge is a limited knowledge, including our knowledge of God. We recognize that what we see we are seeing though a limited spectrum.
So you ask what about truth? Truth is absolute. Well yes and no. From a "theology from below" perspective we do not speak of absolutes, to do so would be to reject our own historicity, something a postmodern cannot do this would also make us in my opinion taking on the mind of God (prideful at the least possibly idolatrous). This is not to say that we do not believe in a liberating truth, a truth that changes our lives and draws us to tell others about the truth that we have experienced and been changed by.
this is a different understanding of truth than some sort of psychological truth, where our truth becomes a power by which we control. this is also different from a subjective truth, which says my truth and your truth even though different may both be right. subjective truth is a type of truth, and an important one at that, but it is different from a liberating truth that has altered your humanity and understanding.
more to come...
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