Religious Pluralism And Theology Flashcards
“Do all religions lead to salvation” essay
A: not all religions lead to salvation as Christianity is the only true religion. How could an omnibenevolent God refuse salvation. Rahner, religions are lawful when they contained God’s grace, anonymous Christians.
CA: Hick - universalism, one an-sich. Elephant and the blind men. Noumenal and phenomenal. Whole bible is a myth.
E: monolithic, over simplifies other religions. Satanists achieve the same salvation. Invalidates other religions exclusivist views.
A: each religion has distinct variations in their teachings. All have introductory truth claims. Hume logically no.
CA: Pluriform pluralism, Keith Ward combats the monolithic view, knowledge is gained through religious experience and not revelation, no competition for truth.
E: loss of religious identity. If all religions were seen equally valid no one would have a strong sense of commitment .
“Can anonymous Christians also achieve salvation?” essay
A: Rahner: yes as long as as they live a life with Christian values. Not pluralism as can allow anything including satantist cult. Inculpably ignorant cannot help it. Religions that share part of the gospel.
CA: Catholic church - rays of truth. Jesus “no one gets the the kingdom of God except through me”. Must accept Jesus as saviour as he died for our sins
E: Omnibenevolent God. Would be inconsistent. Cannot suffer eternally if they are incapably ignorant
A: Acknowledges that humans fall short of perfection. St. Paul and the unknown God. They have worshipped the Christian God without knowing. Therefore imperfect should be allowed to be saved
CA: Calvin: only elect can reach heaven. Original sin = means we have to rely on Gods grace
E: Sheep and the goats: can get to heaven through selfless acts. Not just faith
Key words
Epistemology: study of the truth of religions
Soteriology: whether all religions lead to salvation
Necessary : things that you need to do/believe in to achieve salvation
Sufficient: enough but not the only way
Scholars and arguments
- Gavin D’Costa: created the 6 controlling beliefs: God created, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, Fidel ex auditu, sola christus, eschatology, sin. Has observed trends in Christian theology
- Calvin: RAE scholar, must be baptised. Believes in double predestination so may not get into heaven even if you do these things (necessary but not sufficient)
- Jesus/bible: “I am the way, the true and the light, no one gets to the father except through me”. Great commission - “make disciplesall nations” he fact that Jesus commands it
- Barth: RAE/UAE scholar uniqueness of the revelation of the trinity that shows that only Christianity is true. Other religions should be abolished (could be translated as transformed)
- Catholics: UAE Purgatory gives people a chance to accept God as their saviour. Other religions contain “rays of truth” but can still only be saved through the church
- Sheep and the goats: good works can lead to to heaven as well
- Pre-Jesus people: people were not baptised before Jesus - is this fair. People in countries where they do not know of Christianity - inculpably ignorance/ anonymous Christians
- Epistemological arrogance: God is too mysterious to confidently claim such knowledge that one religion is true.
- Rahner: Structural inclusivist - anonymous Christians, there are elements of other religions that have Christianity, people follow Christianity without knowing where it is coming from. Inculpably ignorant, people who lived before Jesus, that haven’t heard of Christianity.
- Hick: Although religious are phenomenally different, noumenally they are refereeing to the same underlying an-Sich. Parable of the mind men and the elephant. All religions have a portion of truth. None has the whole truth. If Christianity was to accept that iiit is one of many valid religions, society would be harmonious. All of Christianity is a myth - a fictional story with truth at its hard. Christian beliefs are Christocentric when they should be theocentric. Pluralists may suggest that Jesus was more of a teacher of wisdom. He argues sola christus should be abandoned
- Keith Ward: Pluriform Theological pluralism - argues that there are manny reas as they are experienced by each religion. No one can have definite knowledge of the real an-Sich each religion has its own authentic version of salvation. As knowledge is gained through religious experience and not revelation, there cannot be a competition for exclusive truth
- Knitter: Points out the dangers of Hick’s unitary system in that it suffers the same kind of imperialism that he was aiming to avoid. All religions are soteriocentric with the aim for liberating humans fro suffering injustice. Not reality centred.
- Heim: Hick isn’t a true pluralist because Hick consideres to major world religions to be authentic, while satanism isn’t. He is arguing that certain types of behaviour lead to salvation
