David Basinger on Defending Religious Exclusivism: A Critical Approach

Abstract

David Basinger is among philosophers who defend religious exclusivism. He tries in his various writings to provide a new explanation for supporting this approach. Although he is supposedly a religious exclusivist, his different attitude towards religious diversity and his acceptance of some of the principles of religious pluralism have put his explanation under critics. This research tries to explain Basinger’s theory, criticize its foundations, and examine whether it is a successful approach to defend religious exclusivism. The study shows that some of the bases accepted by him are inclined to religious pluralism, including lacking objective criteria for comparative evaluation of religions, substitution the explanatory role of religious propositions for the description of reality, and considering the followers of religions equal in accessing the sources of knowledge.

Keywords

• religious diversity
• religious exclusivism
• religious pluralism
• david basinger