Pluralism and Theology Flashcards
exclusivism summary
– salvation can only be gained through the Xian faith
• Was the mainstream position, attitudes are now changing as countries such as the UK become more pluralist
• Most Xians believe that Christ’s sacrifice was a unique event of cosmic significance, salvation can only be brought through him and responding to the Gospel (‘particularists’)
exclusivism - bible support
o Matthew 7:13 – ‘Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the read that leads to it easy, and there are many who travel to it’.
o John 14:6 – ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can enter the Father except through me’
o Matthew 28:19 – ‘go to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples. Baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’
exclusivism - Gavin d’costa
split exclusivism into two:
• Restrictive access exclusivism: Calvinist idea of God choosing those who are saved
• Universal access exclusivism: Christ’s salvation is offered to all, God’s will is that we all come to love him
RAE 3 main positions
calvin
fundamentalists
church
kraemer
rae - Calvin
• Calvin/Augustine – v selective, God chooses who will go to heaven
♣ Narrow exclusivists
♣ God is under no obligation to save anyone, therefore sending people to hell does not limit love for humanity
rae - fundamentalists
♣ Bible is W of God
♣ Salvation is only possible through hearing the gospel (fides ex auditu) and accepting baptism from the Church
rae - RCC
♣ You can only be saved if you are baptised into the RCC and regularly receive the Eucharist
♣ ‘Extra ecclesiam nulla salus’ – there is no salvation outside the Church
papal bull, 1302
singulari quadam
rae - kraemer
- Stresses that salvation can only come through Xianity
- People of other faiths can see God’s revelation ‘in a broken, troubled way, in reason, in nature and in history’, but cannot be saved unless they are Xian
- It is wrong to pick out beliefs in other religions that are most like those in Xianity. Religions cannot be pulled apart this way, they are part of a whole belief system.
- There is no middle ground/partial truth in other religions, you either accept JC’s sacrifice or you don’t.
uae - summary
- All people who accept Christ through faith are saved, regardless of their Church/style of worship. Different to universalism, as there can still be no salvation beyond the Church (unicity of the Church compared to the deficiency of other religions)
- De Costa claims that it is the will of God that this route should be available to everyone and is offered to everyone
- 1 Tim 2:3-6 – ‘this is good, and pleases God our saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth’
uae - church
• Lumen Gentium of Vatican II
o ‘Many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure’ (i.e. outside RCC exclusively)
• Dominus lesus, 2000
o The universal mission of the Church is found within the commission of JC in Matthew 28 (baptise the nations…)
o ‘The RCC has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and teachings, which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men’ (- H, this suggests that RCC is actually inclusivist, difficult to determine)
uae - William lane Craig
o Believes all are sinful and deserve eternal punishment. (+Augustine, Calvin)
o ‘It is out of God’s mercy, which is received by faith in Christ’s sacrificial death, that anyone is saved’ (Craig “No other Name” 172-173).
o Highlights how inclusivism and pluralism are inconsistent with Christian scripture. God eternally punishes those who reject his offer of salvation.
♣ ‘Those who make a well-informed and free decision to reject Christ are self-condemned.’
o Despite the incongruity, Craig maintains that those who are ‘uninformed non-believers’ remain culpable. (- David B. Myers and Stephen Maitzen)
o Craig argues against this saying that they have had access to the general revelation in nature as expressed in Romans 1:26 and so have no excuse for their disbelief.
o References Acts 4:12 to support belief in salvation sola Christus, ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’
o Craig argues that the world God makes has to be designed so that some people reject the offer of salvation. God has arranged so that those who are uninformed are those who would reject Christ anyway.
lane Craig negative - stephen maitzen
Stephen Maitzen’s argument from the demographics of theism argues that not everyone is able to make the ‘well informed and free decision to reject Christ’ as Craig suggests. Some are hindered by education etc. which place them at a disadvantage with regards to hearing the WofG
Karl Barth
o People cannot know God through their own efforts, God chooses to reveal himself through the Word of God
♣ Using John 1, Barth describes the living WofG as:
1. JC (Logos = word)
• Not a static thing, God’s word should be interpreted as an event which happens to humans when they encounter him
2. The Bible
3. Church teaching
o All religions are human constructs, because RE is something created by God to find him, all religions are about trying to be sanctified
o Christianity is superior as God chooses to reveal himself through it
• ‘Revelation singles out the Church as the locus of true religion. But this does not mean that the Christian religions as such is the fulfilled nature of human religions. It does not mean that the Christian religion is the true religion, fundamentally superior to all other religions. We can never stress too much the connection between the truth of the Christian religion and the grace of revelation’ (contradictory message)
Karl Barth - rae?
- Seems to be saying that only Xian revelation is true and that thus truth claims outside of Xianity are untrue
- Stresses that the Trinity is uniquely Xian, no other religion expresses God in these terms, ‘it is the doctrine of the Trinity which fundamentally distinguishes the Xian doctrine of God as Xian’
- Claims that any RE that is an attempt to know God without revelation is an act of unbelief
- ‘In this faith, the presence and reality of the grace of God, which, of course, differentiates our religion, the Xian, from all others as the true religion’
Karl Barth - inclusivist?
- German word ‘abolish’ means to transform. Thus, God’s revelation transforms all REs including Xianity, all religions are an attempt to know God.
- Teaching on Trinity does not imply that only Xians have access to God’s grace
- Barth himself emphasises how none of us are in a position to know mind of God, so how can we judge?
Exclusivism positives
- What is the point of JC’s resurrection if everyone is saved anyone? Heart of Xianity is JC, you put that to Q if you say everyone can be saved
- Atheists might not want to be saved
- Gives people an incentive to go to Church (Bonhoeffer – costly grace rather than cheap grace)
exclusivism negatives - general
• JC came to save us all let down if only few are saved
• Creates tokenist attitude to LAD, may not truly believe but follow to guarantee salvation
• RAE position has led to intolerance, wars etc. because Xianity is seen as the dominant imperialist religion.
• RAE position is completely incompatible with omnibenevolent God
• RCC position is contradictory as part seems to support UAE, other RAE
- Bible is contradictory
exclusivism negatives - alan race
• Alan Race in Christians and Religious Pluralism claims that D. T. Niles asked Barth how he could deem Hinduism unbelief if he had never met any Hindis. Barth responded ‘a priori’ – not convincing.
