Learning from Other Faiths
Why should we learn about other religions? We know what Path we have decided or been called to follow, right? So what is the purpose of learning about Christianity or Islam, for instance?
I believe strongly that everyone should learn about other religions. I did my degree in Christianity and Christian theology despite not being a Christian nor having any desire to become one. If I had the money, I would take degrees in Islam and Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism as well. Does that suggest I am not truly comfortable in my Path? No. I simply feel that my own religious experience can be enriched by learning of other faiths. The best and finest of all religions are great models for our own - and often agree with one another. The mysticism of the world is inspiring and who among us would deny that those mystics became one with the divine for a time?
The politics of the world today are influenced as perhaps they always have been by religious beliefs, and I think it is foolish of us not to learn and understand the grounds on which political decisions are made. In the wake of 9/11 far too many people are treating all Muslims as though they were supporters of terrorism - or on the converse, stigmatising all Christians as though they were obsessed with wiping out other religions. Such ignorant generalisations do nothing but harm - harm us as a community, us as individuals and in the end, us as citizens of the world. Religious conflicts thrive on ignorance of the other side - among the Crusaders who got to know their Muslim opponents they knew that that war was simply political, where it was Christians vs evil Muslims it was sheer religious hatred, of the kind that is hard to stop and infinitely hard to heal.
Knowing about other religions helps us to admire the good and reject the bad - giving honour where honour is surely due. So I admire Christianity's basis in the highest form of love, its committment to helping the poor and needy, its refined and complex ideas of how to live without harming others or harming God. So too do I admire Islam's devotion to God, its mystic understanding of the love of God, and its high devotion to natural theology (science) without which we would not have modern medicine, chemistry, astronomy and much more. Including, of course, the esoteric groundings for ceremonial magic and essentially, neo-Paganism itself. I admire the beautiful art of both those faiths, the growrth of writing, poetry and prose that was a result of the Reformation, and the marvelous love poetry of the Muslim world. Both faiths have such goodness in them - it would be churlish of me to reject them as despoilers of the earth, hot-heated religious fanatics when the majority never were like that.
I can learn from other faiths, from our ancestors in those faiths and from their modern adherents. If we stereotype these religions, claim theyhave nothing to offer - how can we possibly expect peace between believers?