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The Lotus Sutra’s One Vehicle and Rissho Kosei-kai’s Understanding of Interfaith Relations: The Ambivalence of Religious Inclusivism and Prospects for Embracing Religious Pluralism for the 21st Century

Dominick Scarangello 1

1International Advisor to Rissho Kosei-kai

Irregular Papers

ABSTRACT

This presentation will explore the Lotus Sutra-based understanding of the diversity of religions that underpins the Japanese Buddhist religious group Rissho Kosei-kai’s approach to interfaith cooperation and dialogue. I will examine how Rissho Kosei-kai creatively reinterpreted prewar Nichirenism’s stance toward the diversity of religions to support an inclusivist embrace of other religions and enter dialogue with them. However, I determine that those innovations have an ambiguous contemporary legacy, as aspects of Rissho Kosei-kai’s inclusivist notion of the “oneness” of religions cannot transcend reductive inclusivism to provide a coherent account of religious pluralism.In the conclusion of this presentation, I will reflect on the potential for establishing a practical framework for understanding religious pluralism for Rissho Kosei-kai and consider the prospects for embracing a thoroughgoing pluralism from the standpoint of the Lotus Sutra tradition.

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