Quote:
Benjamin Edelen wrote:
Religion is exclusive by definition, and often violently so. Saying otherwise is as convincing as claiming vegetarianism to be inclusive. This is instinctively understood, since religions that make attempts at inclusivity quickly make everyone uncomfortable.
Japan is a reasonable (and utterly unique) exclusion from the above, however. Japanese culture is so laissez-faire and capricious about religion that, with a few notable outliers, when compared with fundamentalism they barely qualify. Furthermore Shintoism's status as a religion is quite debatable, and most of the folks I know who identify as Shinto do not think of it as such.
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That depends partly on one's semantics though, doesn't it? I'm certainly no expert, so please forgive any errors, but I'd label the Shinto of Tsubaki Okami Yashiro as an "inclusive religion." As I think I understand it, it's codified largely in terms of the practices/rituals (which still seems to fit the definition in Webster's for "religion") more than some exclusive point of view or belief, which seems to leave a lot of room for interpretation (and is inclusive to the extent it accepts the individual views of others; as anecdotal evidence, I've heard kannushi suggest that asking different kannushi about the meaning of Shinto will yield differing answers, and it was put forward to suggest this idea...or at the least, that's how my mind interpreted it at the time...I'll have to ask my teacher about his understanding of this now, since the more I write the less confident I feel
).