Pluralism and Theology Flashcards
What is Christian exclusivism?
The belief that only Christianity holds the truth and only Christianity can offer salvation.
What is restricted access exclusivism?
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6
Due to The Fall, nobody really deserves to be saved, which is how exclusivists explain the fate of people who couldn’t hear the gospel. Salvation only comes through hearing the Christian message and accepting it into your life.
What is universal access exclusivism?
God wishes to save everyone, so people who didn’t hear the gospel in life might have it explained to them after death if they lived non-religious but moral and spiritual lives.
How does the Catholic Church view exclusivism?
It argues that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, including other faiths and other denominations of Christianity. Since the 1960s, the Church acknowledges that other religious entities have fragments of truth, but the full truth can only be realised through the Catholic Church.
What are some weaknesses of exclusivism?
- The fact that exclusivism leads to wars and conflict.
- If God condemns people who didn’t hear the gospel, is he really all-loving?
- If God can’t be fully understood then it is impossible to say that anyone has full control over the truth.
- The Bible suggests people might be judged on their actions rather than their beliefs (Parable of Sheep and Goats.)
- It doesn’t seem fair that the Catholic Church says all other religions are preparations for the gospel but don’t allow salvation for people outside the church.
What is Inclusivism?
Although Christianity is the one true faith and the normative way to salvation, it is possible for anonymous/invisible Christians to be saved. Everyone has spirituality within them and if their search for the truth is done appropriately, they can be saved through Jesus.
What is the basis of Karl Rahner’s argument for religious inclusivism?
- Christianity is the one true God but figures from the Old Testament must have been able to be saved.
- Other religions can help people to salvation, but only until they encounter the Christian message.
- Christian missionaries must not assume that the non-Christians they encounter have had no experience of the truth.
- The Church needs to be the visible expression of what other religions have in an invisible way.
What happens in Acts 17?
Paul makes a speech in Athens to its pagan people, commending them for creating an altar ‘to an unknown God.’ They had been worshipping the Christian God without knowing it and now Paul will explain who the unknown God is. Rahner draws upon this to support worshiping God in different ways until the gospel is heard.
If God truly wants people to be saved, what does Rahner suggest?
- Institutions can be a form of anonymous Christianity because they have structures that explore truth and salvation, and they can be a means of grace.
- Individuals can be anonymous Christians because non-Christians can be good and moral.
What are some strengths of Inclusivism?
- It balances the unique Christ-event and the idea that a loving God would want to save people.
- Acknowledges the idea of sensus divinitas (sense of the divine)
- Conforms to Biblical ideas that Jewish people were chosen by God and were presumably saved.
What are some weaknesses of Inclusivism?
- Patronising to other religions; why couldn’t a Christian be an anonymous Hindu?
- Decentralises Christ and undermines the role of the Church.
- It could be seen as a dressed-up version of universal access exclusivism because non-Christian religions remain inferior.
What is pluralism?
The idea that there are multiple paths to salvation, and Christianity is just one of them.
What is the analogy of the blind men and the elephant?
If a group of blind men come across an elephant and each man touches a different part of the elephant, each will gain a different understanding of what the elephant is, even though all understandings are equally valid.
What was the basis of Hick’s argument for pluralism?
- Hick felt that all that needed to be known should be able to be deduced from the world.
- People believe because of religious experience; religious experience is common to all faiths.
- Different people are experiencing and interpreting reality in different ways.
- Cultural differences provide the different lenses through which we experience the divine.
How was Hick’s pluralism influenced by Kant?
Kant distinguished between noumena (what a thing actually is) and phenomena (how we individually experience it.) Therefore, the noumena of the divine is one thing, but it is experienced through different phenomena (religions.)
