Religious pluralism and theology Flashcards
development (19 cards)
Alan Race
-Christians and Pluralism (1982), identifies 3 broad perspectives of how Christians might approach dealing with people of other faiths
1. exclusivism – no salvation other than Christianity
2. Inclusivism – Christianity is the key but possible for non Christians to be saved by Christ
3. pluralism – many different paths to salvation
- exclusivism – what is it?
-Christian Exclusivist position claims:
-other religions can’t lead
people to relationship with
God
-Jesus Christ brought
salvation to the world
-only through hearing the
Gospel and responding with
faith in Christ can you be
saved
-salvation requires giving up
old ways of life
-no other path available
-may also been known as ‘particularist’ (less negative tone), is the name the problem or the claims the problem?
Andy Bannister – isn’t it arrogant to say that only Christianity is true?
-Christians are often accused of arrogance for claiming Jesus is the only way to salvation.
-All people deserve equal respect and dignity, but not all ideas or truth claims are equally valid.
-Truth by nature is exclusive—contradictory claims cannot all be true at the same time.
-Major world religions differ fundamentally and are not simply variations of the same core message.
-Christianity centers not on moral teachings but on the person and identity of Jesus Christ.
-Removing Jesus from Christianity would collapse the faith, unlike other religions that can survive without their founders.
-real issue isn’t arrogance, but whether Jesus’ claims are true.
-Christians are encouraged to engage respectfully, distinguishing belief disagreements from personal attacks.
-Analogies like “2+2=4, not 5” are used to explain the exclusivity of truth in faith contexts.
-conversation invites deeper thinking on tolerance, truth, and religious diversity in society.
‘narrow’ exclusivism
-only Christians within their own denomination are saved
-example, some Christians take the Bible literally whilst others read it more for guidance
-Augustine and Calvin took this approach, believed that through God’s grace only a select few Christians will be elected to heaven, being Christian isn’t enough
-D’Costa – ‘Restrictive-Access Exclusivists’
exclusivists – Kraemer
-leading figure in Netherlands, bring Christian denominations together
-book = ‘The Christian Message in a Non Christian World’ (1938) was influential for Christian missionaries working in non-Christian countries
-emphasised that non-Christians cannot achieve salvation through own faith systems, need to convert to christianity
exclusivists – Barth
-protestant theologian, could be seen as an exclusivist thinker (didn’t use this term to describe himself)
-believes people cannot know God through own effort but that God chooses to reveal himself through; Jesus, Bible and Church
-God can only be known through Christ, cannot be found through human efforts
how to be an exclusivist?
-don’t be led by political correctness or fear of offending others on matters of ultimate truth
-Christian message isn’t a matter of person taste, is important for everyone’s eternal soul
-means it’s necessary to say that non Christians are wrong
-all those not on Christian path = danger to damnation
-missionary work and trying to convert others is a duty, not a sign of ignorance
Catholic Church and the Vatican II
-associated with moto ‘there is no salvation outside the Church’
-have to be part of Church to be saved
-however, attitudes began to change after Vatican II
-long series of meetings between 1962-1965, where leading figures discussed Catholic Church into modern world
-result = positive and open response to other denominations and world faiths
‘broad’ exclusivism
-view that holds all people who accept Christ through faith will be saved
-doesn’t matter about denomination
-D’Costa – ‘Universal-Access Exclusivists’, Christian belief that recognises:
-Christ’s salvation is open to all
-salvation can come after death through purgatory
-“God our saviour desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” - Timothy
- Inclusivism
-middle between exclusivism and pluralism
Inclusivist – Rahner
-was influential and leading voices in Vatican II
-christianity = unique, founded on God’s ultimate act of revelation through Jesus = ‘absolute’ religion, setting the standard by which other religions should be measured
-excludes anyone who:
-lived before Christ
-anyone that has never heard
about God’s revelation
-exclusivism doesn’t seem inline with God’s omnibenevolent nature
-rejected exclusivism
-if you do hear about Christ, then you must become a Christian then you have no excuse
the ‘Anonymous Christian’ – Rahner
-Lumen Gentium = A light to all nations - was one principle achieved in the Vatican II
-“do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and loved by grace… may achieve eternal salvation”
-Kraemer argues against religion is a misguided attempt to the truth, are cultural constructs
-Rahner disagrees and argued that non-Christian religions can hold some truth, some are ‘anonymous Christians’, don’t call themselves Christians but in attitudes adopted are turned to Christ without knowing it
critic of Rahner – Balthasar
-criticised ‘anonymous Christian’
-argued that the Church shouldn’t go into hiding in modern secular world or present a watered-down version of Christian message in order to appease people of other faiths or no faith
-should be able to stand out in open and be courageous in its claims that salvation is to be found only in Christianity
- pluralism
-many different religious traditions can have value and lead followers to salvation
-different religions share the same ultimate goal
-beliefs and practices associated with different religions arise because of human culture
-differences are only superficial
parable of the blind men and the elephant
-originated in India
-blind men encounter an elephant
-each feels a different part: trunk, tusk, ear etc.
-each has a different understanding of what the elephant is like and the men argue
-however, all are encountering the same elephant
-shows that we are all right, just miss big picture of what you’re talking about
-just got different cultural representations based on where you live
pluralist – John Hick
-started as an evangelical Christian, was firmly convinced of truth of Christianity and need to convert others to salvation through Christ
-while in Birmingham, was impressed by faith of all the different religions, noticed commitment to prayer, family values and willingness to work together and their genuine commitment to living godly lives
-raised a question: Would the God of love really deny such people salvation?
-suggested a need for what he called a ‘copernican revolution’ in theology
-Copernicus caused a shift in way that scientists understood the universe, proposed that earth wasn’t centre of one by many planets orbiting sun
-is arguing Christianity isn’t the centre of the universe, everything doesn’t revolve around Christianity
pluralist - John Hick continued
-drew upon Kant’s ideas
-Kant drew distinction between ‘noumenal’ and ‘phenomenal’
-successful as religion is a human construct, all we have is our ability to work it out
-for Hick, Christianity shouldn’t be understood as ‘the truth’ as it has too many flaws
-incarnate of Jesus = a myth
noumenal and phenomenal
-Noumenal world: world of things as they really are, Kant thought the nature of God belonged in the noumenal world, we aren’t capable of knowing God as he really is, our minds = finite
-Phenomenal world: world as it appears to us, Hick argues religion is a human, phenomenal attempt to understand God, all religions = human constructs, we filter down our understanding of God with our own contexts and upbringing, every religion falls short of the truth, no one is capable of noumenal understanding of God
pluralist - Panikkar
-1918-2010
-had a different pluralist view to Hick
-believed in openness rather than making any claims to know what ‘the truth’ is or where it might be found
-came from a mixed family: Father – Indian Hindu, Mother – Spanish Catholic
-“I left Europe as a Christian, i discovered i was a Hindu and returned a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian”
-emphasised mystery of divine without destroying different cultural traditions and diversity
-known for saying that he tried to find his religious identity by losing it completely
