Assessing religious pluralism Flashcards
Criticisms of exclusivism
1 RAE cause of Christian imperialism, colonization, religious conflict, and suffering
2 RAE presents an unloving and unjust God who only cares for those who have the opportunity to know him
3 UAE lacks consistency- RC Church is evident of this in its teaching
4 Barths emphasis on the unknowable nature of God leads to agnosticism and an inability to ever establish a coherent theology of religions
5 Exclusivists wrongly judge universalism as undermining Christian controlling beliefs- it actually recognizes God’s love for all creation and that all humans have the ability to enter the beatific vision
RAE key supporting biblical texts
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him,’ I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
Acts 4:12 “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given by mortals by which we must be saved”
UAE key supporting biblical texts
1 Timothy 2:3-6 “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all- this was attested at the right time”
Criticism of exclusivism
RI is really no different from UAE
Criticism of Rahner’s structural inclusivism
1 Rahner has made Christianity imperialist and offensive to non-Christians
2 It may be more accurate to say Christians are anonymous Buddhists or Jews
3 He separates the idea of grace from the importance of Christ
4 Anonymous Christianity and the invisible Church is unbiblical
5 Anonymous Christians are unable to repent and seek forgiveness, an essential part of being recognizably Christian
6 Votum Ecclesia is misused. It doesn’t make sense to implicitly wish to become a member of something when you don’t know what that something is.
7 Is it not better for an anonymous Christian to remain a non-Christian? Rather than possibly hearing the gospel and then rejecting it? Surely it is better never to hear it.
Strengths of theological pluralism
1 Frees us to observe differences between different religious traditions without pressure to homogenize them.
2 Recognizes religious traditions are not straightforward assertions of facts but complex mixtures of mythical, symbolic, philosophical, and empirical.
3 Different conceptualizations of the Real can lead us to move from self-centeredness to Reality-centredness.
4 Opens the possibility to appreciate another religion without a priori belief that it is inferior. The work towards pluralism has begun under Vatican II but yet to be worked into Christian theology.
Criticisms of pluralism debunked
1 You cant create one religion with everyone believing the same thing – True and Hick is not saying that you should. Global theology refers to creating a framework which makes sense for all religions and helps people enter into positive inter-faith dialogue. It is not a global religion and he thinks different religions will continue to exist because people need different ways to experience the divine
2 Different religions cannot all be true, they say different things – Hick is not saying they are all true and that every claim is true. He is saying that they all contain some truth. They also contain human projection and error. Some might actually be more true than others, but we cannot know which ideas are most right so we should treat all valid religions equally
3 All religions are not all valid e.g satanism should not be considered as valid as Christianity and Hinduism – Hick agrees it shouldn’t be. It is not true that every single belief system is a reflection of the divine Hick considers religions to be genuine reflections of the divine if they lead to an ethically minded way of life and lead people away from selfishness. The main world religions do this as do many minor religions but not every belief system does
