Single Idea 22878

[catalogued under 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / a. Religious Belief]

Full Idea

There is only a multitude of religions …and the differences between them are so great and so shocking that any common element that can be extracted is meaningless.

Gist of Idea

Religions are so shockingly diverse that they have no common element

Source

John Dewey (The Later Works (17 vols, ed Boydston) [1930], 9:7), quoted by David Hildebrand - Dewey 7 'Construct'

Book Reference

Hildebrand,David: 'Dewey' [One World 2008], p.189


A Reaction

Religion is for Dewey what a game was for Wittgenstein, as an anti-essentialist example. I would have thought that they all involved some commitment to a realm of transcendent existence.