Are Different Religions Talking About the Same God? A Final Answer (for Now) From the Philosophy of Language

Abstract

This article asks whether different religious communities are talking about the same god and have genuine disputes about god. After criticizing approaches based on so-called theories of reference, it argues that the notion of genuine dispute, and the related notion of topic continuity, are context-sensitive notions. Whether different religions can reasonably be said to refer to the same god and have genuine disputes about god depends on how we frame the notions of sameness of topic and genuine dispute in the specific context at hand.