Editing Syncretism (section)

== Cultures and societies ==
{{Main article|Moral syncretism}}
According to some authors, "Syncretism is often used to describe the product of the large-scale imposition of one alien culture, religion, or body of practices over another that is already present."<ref>Peter J. Claus and Margaret A. Mills, ''South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia'': (Garland Publishing, Inc., 2003).</ref> Others such as [[Jerry H. Bentley]], however, have argued that syncretism has also helped to create cultural compromise. It provides an opportunity to bring beliefs, values, and customs from one cultural tradition into contact with, and to engage different cultural traditions. Such a migration of ideas is generally successful only when there is a resonance between both traditions. While, as Bentley has argued, there are numerous cases where expansive traditions have won popular support in foreign lands, this is not always so.<ref>Jerry Bentley, ''Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), viii.</ref>

===Din-i Ilahi===
[[File:Jesuits at Akbar's court.jpg|thumb|upright|Akbar the Great holding a court discussing theology]]

In the 16th century, the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal emperor]] [[Akbar]] proposed a new religion called the [[Din-i Ilahi]] ("Divine Faith"). Sources disagree with respect to whether it was one of many Sufi orders or merged some of the elements of the various religions of his empire.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dīn-i Ilāhī {{!}} Indian religion|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Din-i-Ilahi|access-date=2021-02-25|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Roychoudhury |first=Makhanlal |year=1941 |title=The Din-i-Ilahi, or, The Religion of Akbar |publisher=University of Calcutta |page=306 |oclc=3312929 |quote=Din-i-Ilahi ... was not a new religion; it was a Sufi order ... in which all the principles enunciated are to be found in the Quran and in the practices in the contemporary Sufi orders.}}</ref> Din-i Ilahi drew elements primarily from [[Islam]] and [[Hinduism]] but also from [[Christianity]], [[Jainism]], and [[Zoroastrianism]]. More resembling a [[personality cult]] than a religion, it had no sacred scriptures, no priestly hierarchy, and fewer than 20 disciples, all hand-picked by Akbar himself.  It is also accepted that the policy of ''sulh-i-kul'', which formed the essence of the Dīn-i Ilāhī, was adopted by Akbar as a part of general imperial administrative policy. ''Sulh-i-kul'' means "universal peace".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/804548/why-putting-less-mughal-history-in-school-textbooks-might-not-be-a-bad-idea|title=Why putting less Mughal history in school textbooks may be a good idea|date=7 March 2016 }} {{verify source |date=September 2019 |reason=This ref was deleted Special:Diff/912757835 by a bug in VisualEditor and later restored by a bot from the original cite located at Special:Permalink/911397953 cite #12 - verify the cite is accurate and delete this template. [[User:GreenC bot/Job 18]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/finding-tolerance-in-akba_b_3031746|title=Finding Tolerance in Akbar, the Philosopher-King| date=10 April 2013 }} {{verify source |date=September 2019 |reason=This ref was deleted Special:Diff/912757835 by a bug in VisualEditor and later restored by a bot from the original cite located at Special:Permalink/911397953 cite #13 - verify the cite is accurate and delete this template. [[User:GreenC bot/Job 18]]}}</ref>

=== Enlightenment ===
The syncretic [[deism]] of [[Matthew Tindal]] undermined Christianity's claim to uniqueness.<ref name="Harding 1995 p. ">{{cite book | last=Harding | first=A.J. | title=The Reception of Myth in English Romanticism | publisher=University of Missouri Press | series=Tall Buildings and Urban Environment | year=1995 | isbn=978-0-8262-1007-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ie1ZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22matthew+tindal%22+%22syncretism%22+%22deism%22 | access-date=2023-02-11 | page=}}</ref> The modern, rational, non-pejorative connotations of syncretism arguably date from [[Denis Diderot]]'s {{lang|fr|[[Encyclopédie]]}} articles ''Eclecticisme'' and ''Syncrétistes, Hénotiques, ou Conciliateurs''. Diderot portrayed syncretism as the concordance of eclectic sources.  Scientific or legalistic approaches of subjecting all claims to [[critical thinking]] prompted at this time much literature in Europe and the Americas studying non-European religions such as Edward Moor's ''[[The Hindu Pantheon]]'' of 1810, much of which was almost evangelistically appreciative by embracing spirituality and creating the space and tolerance in particular [[disestablishmentarianism|disestablishment of religion]] (or its stronger form, official secularisation as in France) whereby believers of [[Spiritualism (beliefs)|spiritualism]], [[agnosticism]], [[atheism|atheists]] and in many cases more innovative or pre-Abrahimic based religions could promote and spread their belief system, whether in the family or beyond.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}