Griffiths's Argumentative Analysis

Griffiths argues for the paradigm of pluralism, viewed through the lens of the Christian faith. According to Griffiths, no religion has the “monopoly of the truth,” but instead, each faith has a part of the “divine revelation”. Both Hinduism and Christianity can learn a great deal from each other, and must combine their respective positive qualities in order to find the full truth and the greatest path to salvation and self-realization. For example, Griffiths points out how Christianity lost touch with its mystical tradition. On the other hand, Griffiths finds that Eastern faiths, like Hinduism, still maintain this aspect of their faiths. Therefore, Christianity can learn from Eastern religions how to regain this connection (Griffiths 155). More specifically, Griffiths asserts that the connection to mystical experience often comes from “the path of self-realization which has been followed for centuries in the East” (Griffiths 155). One example of how …show more content…
Griffiths makes the argument that Christianity is incomplete without intuition, stating that “both reason and intuition by themselves are defective, just as man is defective without woman, woman without man” (Griffiths 165). Extending from this idea of Christianity requiring a female, intuitive quality, Griffiths argues that “Hindu experience can also help to bring out another aspect of the godhead, the concept of God as Mother” (Griffiths 191). Griffiths points out that the “Hebrew tradition was patriarchal and Christianity has preserved only a masculine concept of God” (Griffiths 191). However, this masculine idea of God distanced itself from the original Hebrew tradition, in which the word for the spirit is feminine, and the figure of Wisdom is feminine (Griffiths 191). Therefore, Hinduism can help Christianity reconnect to this feminine aspect of