exclusivist & inclusivist approaches

Question 1

exclusivist & unclusivist

Answer 1

• traditional christianity is exclusivist & is associated with evangelical christianity
• exclusivist say that one religion is uniquely valuable
• inclusivist says that one religion may have the most value but other religions still have value
• more ‘liberal’ christians tend to be more inclusivist

Question 2

exclusivist bible texts

Answer 2

• “and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the lord’s anger will burn you” joshua 23:16 OT
• OT tends to be exclusivist

Question 3

inclusivist bible texts

Answer 3

• “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” matthew 25:40 NT
• NT tends to be inclusivist

Question 4

contribution of karl rahner to christian inclusivism

Answer 4

• though tradition christianity is exclusivist some christians/theologians are more inclusivist like rahner & hick
• rahner was a catholic theologian who put forward inclusivist ideas & made famous the term ‘anonymous christian’ which is a person who has connected with god through jesus but without realising, through being a member of another religion
• “on one hand has de facto accepted his freedom… on the other he is absolutely not yet a christian at social level”

Question 5

summary of rahner to christian inclusivism

Answer 5

• argues christianity is one absolute religion
• jesus died for human sin & enables people to be saved through grace & this grace can then be received through non-christian religions
• non-christians who behave in a ‘christian’ type of way already have god’s grace & regarded as anonymous christian
• goes onto saynwhilst other religions can be lawful they contain error so church still has duty to evangelise

Question 6

christian attitudes to other faiths

Answer 6

• never been uniformity in the church
• three main denominations - protestant, roman catholic, orthodox
  REASONS FOR DIVISION:
• issue of authority - should authority belong to one leader or should all have authority & should scripture be source of authority
• question on tradition - baptist movement emphasises adult baptism as reminder of jesus’ baptism but catholics believe in baptism of infants

Question 7

how do christian denomincations view each other

Answer 7

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: essential to maintain continuity in faith & if church is body of christ there is no real scope for division, those who are seperated from it may seek in their own way to follow christ but neverthr;ess cut off from authentic source of christian teaching so liberal catgolic thinkers therefore opt for closed inclusivist position with respect to other denominations
PROTESTANT EVANGELICALS - individual christians can communicate directly with god & don’t need priest to mediate and there’s emphasis on faith rather than obedience to tradition. so from this pov, protestant churches judge other christians by the way they apply NT and prefer to be self-governing meaning they see hierarchical authority structure of church of england, catholic, orthodox
CHURCH OF ENGLAND- over centuries held various range of views making it difficult to identify one single view with relation to other churches. official position to other churches is non-commital and acknowledges theres differences in worship & unwillingness to exclude other christians from possibility of salvation could be described as inclusivist