RELIGIOUS PLURALISM AND OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GOD With special Reference to Luther's Theology

As far as we can go back in human history we find a multiplicity of languages, cultures and religions. Thus has religious pluralism been a fact for millenia, most probably from the very beginning of human history. What is new is that we become increasingly aware of that fact.% But even this is not a new phenomenon since religions called world religions are the result of processes of mutual assimilation and dissimilation. There is neither a "pure" Buddhism nor a "pure" Christianity, but always a religion embedded in a specific situation which is different from other situations. The New Testament itself bears testimony to this multiplicity as we know very well from historical critical research.