by JRosemary » January 29th, 2008, 4:01 pm
You raise some interesting points, Tuke. There are two issues here:
1. Are other religions idolatrous? If God chooses to reveal himself as Vishnu to the Hindus or in Jesus to the Christians, than neither Vishnu nor Jesus can be considered idols. I don't consider either to be idols, at any event, but suspect, instead, that they are legitimate aspects of God's revelations to other peoples.
2. What sort of restrictions are there on idolatry where gentiles are concerned? Remember that many of the commandments in the Hebrew Bible--most, in fact--are binding only on Jews. For example, Jews are bound by the commandment not to have graven images, but gentiles aren't.
There is a group of laws that supposedly applies to gentiles: the Noahide laws. They're derived from God's injunctions to Noah. Those are the only laws 'binding' on gentiles. Not even the Ten Commandments are binding on gentiles--except the ones repeated in the Noahide laws. (Christians may argue that they are bound by the Ten Commandments--and with good reason, considering their closeness to Judaism. But that's still another issue...)
At any event, the Noahide laws are primarily concerned with ethics and endorsing courts of law, but they do include one anti-idolatry clause. But defining what constitutes idolatry for gentiles is extremely difficult and controversial.
It may be that pluralism is easier for Jews than for Christians. Judaism doesn't say that everyone should convert to Judaism--it advocates universal ethics, not a universal religion.
Hinduism has it easiest where pluralism is concerned, though. As far as I can see, it's always had a pluralistic outlook and has always insisted that God can reach out to different people in different ways.