Letter: Wrong perception of Dr Hwa’s position on theology

(publication link)

As published:

I REFER to the letter, “Religion plays a big role in cultivating a person’s character”, by Timothy Cheah, (Sunday Star, Dec 18).

Cheah depicts Dr Hwa Yung as a sort of theological liberal.

Now in Christian theology, the “liberals” are a very specific family of thinkers, which Dr Hwa is somewhat opposed to.

There are two kinds of religious pluralism, and Cheah fails to clearly articulate Dr Hwa’s position on religion. Allow me to attempt a correction.

One kind of religious pluralism is epistemological pluralism. In this view, all religions are equally valid methods for any human being to access the Truth, which is God ... or whatever you choose to call The-Ultimate-Object-of-Religion.

This is generally not Dr Hwa’s theological position, nor is it the position of the Methodist Church of Malaysia at large.

A different kind of religious pluralism is political-but-not-epistemological pluralism. In this view, a person can believe that only his own religion can give human beings access to the Truth.

Nevertheless, because that person wishes to maintain good social relations with his geographical neighbours, he chooses to live harmoniously in a society with other people who do not share his convictions about the Truth.

If I am not mistaken, it is this version of religious pluralism which is embraced by most religious people in Malaysian society.

I know for a fact that Dr Hwa readily supports this point of view.



HWA YANG JERNG,

Petaling Jaya.