Is There a Universal Grammar of Religion? by Henry Rosemont

Author:Henry Rosemont
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812699302
Publisher: Open Court
Published: 2015-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

3

THE CONVERSATION

HENRY ROSEMONT, JR., AND HUSTON SMITH

This chapter has the appearance of a transcript of a conversation between Huston Smith and myself, and in many respects that is what it is. We met for two hours in his living room on a Monday in November, 2006, with Dr. Martin Verhoeven and the Reverend Heng Sure in attendance, the latter taping the discussion. But the present text differs from the original in several respects. First, pleasantries of the day, gross infelicities of expression, and comments on issues distant from the subject of the Universal Grammar of religion have been excised. And a number of my contributions to the discussion have been significantly abbreviated because Huston insisted that I should have the last word in our exchanges, so I have placed a number of my remarks in the chapter to follow, letting Huston be the focus of this one. I have also added some materials from the evening of the original lecture—namely, some questions from the audience, for which Huston’s answers seem more appropriately placed here than earlier—and a few brief remarks made in a more informal luncheon conversation we had with Martin Verhoeven on the previous Friday.—H.R.

HR: It is very good of you to offer so much time for further discussion on the topic of a Universal Grammar of religion, to finish up what we began at your lecture (and long before that), to celebrate what we agree upon and attend to our differences. I am especially pleased that you can engage in this conversation today, as you’ve just recently returned from a busy weekend being honored by the Esalen Institute1 I am also pleased that you wish to continue this conversation for the same reason I do, namely, in the hope of making a small contribution to stemming an increasing tide of hostility to religion, a hostility not at all unjustified owing to the fanaticism that accompanies many fundamentalist orientations in several faith traditions today, not to speak of the horrors perpetrated in the past by various peoples in the name of their religions.2

A video of the event is available from Phil Cousineau Events: [email protected].

Here I had intended to make reference especially to Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, with some critical remarks thereon, but Professor Michelle Switzer has called my attention to a review essay of the book which has done the job much better than I could have done. It is “Lunging, Flailing, and Mispunching,” by Terry Eagleton; it appeared in the London Review of Books 28, 19 October 2006.

HS: That’s right. And I know we also share an antipathy to most forms of relativism that are intellectually fashionable today as well. I’ll follow your lead in responding to comments and questions, but I do want you to have the last word on this matter, I want you to write out the final statement.

HR: Okay, if that’s the way you want to do it. Let’s begin with the genesis of your lecture theme of a “Universal Grammar” of religion.

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