I enjoyed reading Edmund Chia's rebuttal of my expose of pluralism ( Religious pluralism My daddy's cool! ). It adds further colour to the spectrum of the theological discourse.

Despite our differing understanding and interpretation of religious pluralism, we nonetheless concur that John Hick remains the "guru" of the pluralist theology.

Amongst the modern scholars of theology, Hick is probably the foremost in paying meticulous attention to the issues of religious diversity and theorising religious pluralism in such a profound manner. He has extensively elaborated his hypothesis of religious pluralism in virtually all of his scholarly works.

I must admit my disappointment at not being able to reference any of Hick's or for that matter other pluralist theologian's writings or thoughts in my reading of Chia's piece to substantiate his personalised inferences of the pluralist theology.

I can only benchmark my grasp of the pluralist theology against the writings of renowned scholars of religious pluralism, the likes of Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), William E Hocking (Re-thinking Mission, 1932), Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975), Wilfred Cantwell Smith (Towards a World Theology, 1981) and John Harwood Hick et al. Chia's would be his own variant, personal flavour or mutation of the pluralist model.

Hick wrote: "Other religions are equally valid ways to the same truth". Paul Knitter contends "All religions are relative that is limited, partial and incomplete, one way of looking at something Deep down, all religions are the same".

In his contribution to the The encyclopedia of religion, Hick defined religious pluralism as "...the term refers to a particular theory of the relation between these traditions, with their different and competing claims. This is the theory that the great world religions constitute variant conceptions and perceptions of, and responses to, the one ultimate, mysterious divine reality the view that the great world faiths embody different perceptions and conceptions of, and correspondingly different responses to, the Real or the Ultimate, and that within each of them independently the transformation of human existence from self-centeredness to reality- enteredness is taking place." [Hick, John, 'Religious Pluralism,' in Eliade, Mircea (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987), Vol. 12, p. 331].

Chia instead suggests that: "If anything, pluralist theologians insist that the many religions are so radically different that we can never reduce them to some common denominator "

He further posits that: "... it is not necessary that all religions have a similar goal. There could be different religious ends. There could be many summits or even many mountains, not necessarily only one."

The pluralist truth claim asserts that all religions, theistic or non-theistic, can be considered as ways through which man can attain salvation, liberation and enlightenment. They all represent authentic responses to the same transcendent "Real" and are thus valid manifestations of the "Real".

Herein lies the hidden yet clear danger of the pluralist truth claim. It is absolutist in the sense that it is all too eager to relativise all of the existing absolute religious truth claims. Epistemologically, relativising the truth claims implies (though rarely recognised by the pluralists) denying or at the very least degrading the absolute truth claims.

And as well exemplified by Chia, the pluralist daddy is the only and truly cool dude. The pluralist truth claim transcends the conflicting and relative truth claims among religions, it claims a faade of democracy and world peace and is the "absolute messiah" to the phenomenon of religious diversity. That is, the other religions daddies are not cool!

Chia's historical analysis of the genesis of religious pluralism is nave and not evidence-based. The religious pluralism discourse revealed itself as a purely Protestant phenomenon. It evolved within the Protestant reform movement, although the doctrine extra Christos Nulla Salus (no salvation outside Christianity) had remained etched in the Protestant theology till the end of the 19th century.

And according to Prof Legenhausen, the idea of religious pluralism was an attempt to provide a theoretical foundation within Christian theology for tolerance of non-Christian religions. It evolved as a reform movement of religious thought, a liberalisation of religion led by Friedrich Scleiermacher's "Liberal Protestantism" in the 19th century.

It was developed further within the discourse of western philosophy and theology by Ernst Troeltsch, a liberal Christian theologian. The pluralist model was further shaped by the Canadian theologian, Wilfred Cantwell Smith who in his work Towards a World Theology, proposed a desperate need to breed a concept of universal or global theology that can best serve as a common ground for religions of the world to co-exist with each other in society peacefully and harmoniously.

John Hick reconstructed the theoretical basis of the pluralist theology, theorised and popularised it to such an extent that it has now become synonymous with his name.

The notion of religious pluralism is alien to Islamic ideological or theological framework. It began to encroach into Islamic thought after the Second World War when Muslims were exposed to education in Western traditions and hence the overt or covert onslaught of Western cultural hegemony.

And the spread of this idea within the Islamic discourse has been partly encouraged by the works of Western Muslim mystics. Isa Nuruddin Ahmad, better known as Frithj of Schuon, emphasised in his book The Transcendent Unity of Religions, that deep down all religions are the same (esoterically they are the same); though their rules , morals and ritual may differ (exoterically different). He called this the Perennial Religion (Religio Perennis)

Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas argues that the transcendent unity of religion is not found even at the esoteric level because each religion has exclusive or differing concepts of god. He adds, such transcendent unity cannot be deemed "religion", only religious experiences.

The schism within the pluralist tradition can be classified into two major planes of thought. Cantwell Smith, Hick et al mainstreamed the sociological concept of a pluralist global theology, whereby cultural identities and religious beliefs must evolve with the passage of time and within the context of post-modernism and globalisation.

Other pluralist theologians suggest otherwise. Their traditional religious philosophical nuances maintained that the many religions should not sacrifice their esoteric and sacral identities. Instead, these ought to flourish and each should not claim superiority over another. They embrace the "all paths lead to the same summit" theology. They include among others Rene Guenon, TS Eliot, Titus Burckhardt, Fritjhof Schuon, Ananda K Coomarasamy, Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al.

Islam's concept of al-Hanifiyah is the divine prescription towards all other non-Islamic religions. It allows "all the other religions" to be fully "others" without any reduction, deconstruction or relativisation. It acknowledges the plurality of religions and allows the adherents of all religions the plurality of laws to govern their lives within the aegis of their religious beliefs and principles. This is the gift of al-Hanifiyah to humanity.