Toward A Christian Theology Of Religious Pluralism

The results from a lifetime of study, reflection and experience in both Europe and Asia is this comprehensive examination of Christian theological understandings of world religious pluralism.

The results from a lifetime of study, reflection and experience in both Europe and Asia is this comprehensive examination of Christian theological understandings of world religious pluralism. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

A new model of Christian theology, the 'pluralistic' model, is taking shape, moving beyond the traditional models of exclusivism (Christianity as the only true religion) and inclusivism (Christianity as the best religion) toward a view that recognizes the possibility of many valid religions. In this volume, a widely representative group of eminent Christian theologians - Protestant and Catholic, male and female, from East and West, First and Third Worlds - explores genuinely new attitudes toward other believers and traditions, expanding and refining the discussion and debate over pluralistic theology. Contributors are: Gordon D. Kaufman, John Hick, Langdon Gilkey, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Stanley J. Samartha, Raimundo Panikkar, Seiichi Yagi, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Marjorie Jewitt Suchocki, Aloysius Pieris, Tom F. Driver, and Paul F. Knitter.

Inspired by pragmatism, this book addresses religious plurality with the aim of bringing forth how it may be approached constructively by Christian theology. Accordingly, not doctrine, but practices are focussed in its analyses of interreligious topics. Henriksen argues that engagement with the diversity of religious traditions should be grounded in openness towards the other, and resistance against making others similar to oneself. Accordingly, the book presents a theological approach where interaction between religious practitioners is considered a benefit and a necessity for the positive future of religious traditions. It will be of interest to anyone who is interested in the understanding of religious pluralism from the point of view of Christian theology.

In this incisive and important volume, Jacques Dupuis offers new insights on the most important issue facing Christian theology today -- giving an account of Christian faith as Christians go more deeply along the road of dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religious traditions. His task is to square a dogmatic circle. How does one do justice to the Gospel claim that Jesus the Christ is the final and universal savior of all humankind in every age, while also doing justice to the experience that truth, grace, holiness, and power are experienced in other religious traditions? In the first six chapters Dupuis reviews the history of the Western Christian tradition's teaching on other religious Ways through the breakthrough at Vatican Council II. In chapters 7 and 8 he reviews the critical issues of uniqueness of Christ and Christian proposals to account for the mediation of salvation in other religious Ways. He discusses also the relationship between the Reign of God, the Church, and the Religions. In chapter 9 he explores the nature and role of dialogue in a pluralistic society. In chapter 10 offers sage reflections on interreligious prayer.

Theology of religions has defaulted in the last two decades to an epicyclic inclusivism which seeks to undermine pluralism with claims that it is covertly triumphalistic and that it mirrors the logic of exclusivism. With the exception of pioneers in the field such as John Hick and Paul Knitter, most major figures in this theological field have retreated from pluralism and promote versions of particularism and inclusivism. Pluralism: The Future of Religion argues for an apophatic pluralism that is motivated by the insight that it is impossible to secure universal assent for changeable bodies of religious teachings. This insight implies the non-finality and consequent 'departicularization' of all religious teachings and their inclusivistic defenses. These conclusions point us inevitably toward pluralism and lead us out of the inclusivistic impasse of contemporary theology in religions.