Religious Pluralism & Theology

Question 1

What is religious pluralism?

Answer 1

• the idea that there can be many paths to salvation and that all religions can be deemed ‘true’
• however members of each religion rarely hold this viewpoint, considering their own to be the only right one
• early Christians believed that salvation can only be achieved through the Christian faith, the Bible is very clear salvation can only be achieved through Jesus Christ

Question 2

Exclusivism

Answer 2

• the belief that salvation can only be found through Christianity and that other religions cannot lead people to the right relationship with God
• salvation requires people to give up their old life and start a new one centred around Christ
• narrow exclusivism: some Christians take it even further, claiming salvation is only available to their own particular denomination within Christianity (e.g. some Catholics only believe baptised Catholics will be saved)
• Augustine and Calvin both believed God elects by grace only a small number of Christians for heaven
• broad exclusivism: the view that all who accept Christian faith will be saved, regardless of denomination
• Hendrik Kraemer argued God’s revelation was visible to all people, the existence of God is clear to see through the beauty of nature and that human reasoning could be used to know God exists
• however, claimed salvation can be found only in Christianity, convinced that either the salvation of Christ was accepted or rejected, there was no middle ground to be found
• Karl Barth believed people cannot know God through their own efforts, but that God chooses to reveal himself through Jesus, the Bible and teachings of the Church
• one of his distinctive messages was his ‘theology of the word’ which is this idea that Jesus is the living word of God, he argued this word consists of three forms:
  1) most important is Jesus Christ
  2) second form is the bible which he called a “witness” of the revelation of God
  3) third form is the Church’s teachings spreading gospel so everyone has a chance to hear it
• so for Barth, Jesus himself is the only totally genuine way to knowledge of God, because Jesus is fully and uniquely the way in which God has chosen to make himself known

Question 3

Inclusivism

Answer 3

• some Christians are uncomfortable with the belief that salvation is unavailable to good people outside of the Christian church
• so there is the belief that an omnibenevolent God would give people the opportunity to repent
• Karl Rahner believed Christianity offered the highest level of salvation and was the standard against which all others religions should be measure
• he had an issue with exclusivism in that it excluded anyone who live before Jesus or anyone who had not been able to hear about God’s revelation through no fault of their own
• however he believed if someone knew about Jesus the only way to be saved was to convert, theres no excuse for rejecting the Gospel if a person knows about it
• therefore Christianity is the true path but God makes allowances fit those who have not been able to access the truth
• “anonymous Christians” are people who are living their lives in accordance to Jesus’ teaching without realising. They do not call themselves Christians, but in the decisions they make and the attitudes they adopt, they are turning to Christ without knowing it, therefore they are not excluded from salvation
• Von Balthasar disagreed with Rahner, arguing the crucifixion of Jesus was absolutely central to human salvation
• used example of St Cordula; she knew that Huns were attacking and hid from them,until she remembered death was not the end, and came out of hiding
• Balthasar passionately believed that **Christians should be unapologetic, stand out and be courageous in its claim that salvation is to be found only in Christ

Question 4

Pluralism

Answer 4

• belief that many different religious traditions can have value and the potential to lead their followers to salvation
• all religions have the same, ultimate goal, to be at one with God, and that different religions arise because of human culture and that differences are only superficial
• as religions are all paths that lead to the same destination, there is no need for conversion, no one is essentially right
• John Hick was an evangelical Christian in his youth and believed you should encourage others to convert, but went to teach at Birmingham University where he became involved in multi-faith groups where he was impressed by the devotion of other faiths which changed his view that only Christians could receive salvation
• Hick believed religious experience is what gives people the reason to believe, people are religious because they experience the divine
• he also recognised that what one person regards as religious experience may not be viewed in that way by others
• ultimately if no religion can prove their claims and if experience is what provides the grounds for belief, then all religions must be treated with respect
• Hick accepts that people may have very different religious experiences, but explains that this difference is accounted for by the fact people exist in different cultures and this shapes their experiences
• argues religious experience is shaped by culture, meaning religious beliefs involves an element of projection
• For Hick, human projection shapes the experience of the divine, but it does not cause it
• suggested there was a need for a ”Copernican shift”, by proposing earth was not the centre but that it orbited the Sun, Copernicus changed understanding of the universe and as a result, other astrological observations started to make sense
• Hick asserts that we need to move away from a Christocentric approach to religion in the same way
• we should see God as the ‘sun’ and Christianity as one of the ‘planets’ that orbit it
• Kant distinguished between ‘a thing in itself’ and ‘a thing as we experience it’, he called the former ‘noumena’ and the latter ‘phenomena’
• ‘phenomena’ are the way things seem to us and ‘noumena’ are things in there purest form
• this distinction is used by Hick when he distinguishes between the noumena of the divine and the phenomena of the world religions
• for Hick, every religion falls short of the ‘truth’ because none is capable of a noumenal understanding of God