T here is great joy In studying religions when a new level of meaning in some

familiar saying or ritual action surprises us. Religious rituals and experiences
contain a symbolic richness that will unfold for the student who observes,
reads, and listens carefully.
Careful observing, reading, and listening require sympathetic imagina­
tion. Imagination is one of our greatest assets. As children it was through
imagination that we began to chart that vast unknown world of the experi­
ences of adults. Playing teacher or astronaut is a way of trying to see what
the world is like from the perspective of someone who is different from us.
T hrough imagination we can project ourselves, at least partially, into the
worldview of a shaman doing magical healing, a yogi in meditation, a prophet
proclaiming a judgment, and a Christian or a Muslim at prayer.
T he ability to imagine-to play, to make believe-is invaluable as we
struggle to comprehend cultures, beliefs, practices, and experiences that seem
different and strange. Sympathetic imagination requires projecting ourselves
into the viewpoint of others and trying to see the world from their perspec­
tive. Insofar as we all share in a common humanity and a common world, such
a projection Is possible and valuable.
At the same time, beware of the limits of imagination. Projection can eas­
ily lead to distortion. For example, some early scholars, following missionary
leads, equated the Lakota Sioux notion of Wakan Tanka, which they trans­
lated as "Great Spirit," with the idea of a monotheistic god as understood in
the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Wakan Tanka is better translated
as "Great Mysteriousness." It is a collective name for a number of different
"wakan (powerful and sacred) beings." To identify Wakan Tanka with the mono­
theistic god of nonnative religious traditions obscures important and instruc­
tive differences.

Critical Tolerance
Many who study and teach about religions hope to promote religious toler­
ance. Religious tolerance is a culturally approved, public virtue that allows all
of us to get along in greater harmony than does religious intolerance. Reli­
gioU!, tolerance not only permits, but also encourages the free expression and
practice of diverse religious traditions. In a diverse society in which a vast
variety of religious traditions exist side by side, the alternative to religious
tolerance appears to be bigotry and strife.
We are so accustomed, however, to thinking of religious tolerance as a
public good that we often fail to address difficult underlying issues. We tend
to think of religious tolerance superficially as a kind of happy acceptance, if
not approval, of religious differences.
A superficial view of toleration ignores two underlying problems. First,
there are religious traditions of which people disapprove whether we think
they ought to or not. Second, there are religious beliefs and practices of which

8 CHAPTER I THINKING ABOUT BEING A STUDENT OF RELIGION