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    Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations
    Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations
    Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations
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    Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations

    By George Clifford

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    Globalization is flattening not only economic and political structures, but also making people more aware than ever of other religions. In particular, growing interfaith awareness challenges Christian claims of exclusivity and superiority. Christians increasingly find traditional theological teachings that the God who created and loves the world arbitrarily condemns all non-Christians to eternal death difficult if not impossible to accept.

    Charting a Theological Confluence responds to that difficulty by presenting four models comprehensively charting the spectrum of how Christianity can view other religions. The analysis of the four models illustrates their commonalities and differences by focusing the discussion of each model on a single theologian, i.e., Barth, Tillich, Kung, and Hick.

    The first (the Christ Alone Model) and the second (the Christ Essential Model) models argue for Christian exclusivity. The third, the Christ Universal Model, claims that Christianity is superior to all other religions, reinterpreting Christian exclusivity to perceive Christ anonymously at work in other religions, reconciling the world to God.

    Only the fourth model, the Theocentric Model, genuinely respects other religions and permits real interfaith dialogue by positioning Christianity as one among many paths to God, each path with its own weaknesses and strengths. Constructed using insights drawn from solid biblical scholarship, process thought, and liberation theology, the Theocentric Model preserves Christian uniqueness, fidelity to the Christian tradition, and honors the diversity of religious experience and belief while rejecting Christian claims of exclusivity and superiority.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGeorge Clifford
    Release dateJan 23, 2013
    ISBN9781301254309
    Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations
    Author

    George Clifford

    George Clifford is an Episcopal priest who retired from the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps as a Captain. His twenty-four years of active Naval service included service at sea, overseas, with Marines, and teaching philosophy at the Naval Academy and ethics and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Since retiring, he has been a writer, parish priest, Visiting Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at NPS, and public speaker. In addition to numerous scholarly and popular articles, he has authored the newly published book, Charting a Theological Confluence: Theology and Interfaith Relations.

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      Book preview

      Charting a Theological Confluence - George Clifford

      Charting a Theological Confluence:

      Theology and Interfaith Relations

      George M. Clifford, III

      Published by Ethical Musings at Smashwords

      ISBN: 9781301254309

      Copyright 2012 George M. Clifford, III

      All rights reserved.

      Cover photo © iStockphoto.com

      Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Many thanks to Marcia Talley for her advice and her generous assistance in preparing the cover.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      List of Figures

      Introduction: Where Streams Mix

      Chapter 1: The Christ Alone Model

      Chapter 2: The Christ Essential Model

      Chapter 3: The Christ Universal Model

      Chapter 4: The Theocentric Model

      Conclusion: Charting the Confluence

      Notes

      Bibliography

      About the Author

      LIST OF FIGURES

      Figure 1: Theological Spectrum of Knitter's Models

      Figure 2: The Christ Alone Model

      Figure 3: The Christ Essential Model

      Figure 4: The Christ Universal Model

      Figure 5: Van Kaam's Dynamics of Prayer

      Figure 6: The Theocentric Model

      Figure 7: Theological Comparison of the Four Models

      INTRODUCTION: Where Streams Mix

      Let me begin with the undeniable religious heterogeneity of the dawning postmodern world. Not only do we live on a spiritually multiplex globe, but nearly every continent, nation, and city is itself increasingly pluralistic. As a result of nineteenth-century Christian missionary activity, worldwide migration patterns, and the spread of Asian religious practices to the West, previous spheres of influence arrangements no longer work. Everyone is now everywhere. There are native-born Presbyterians in Cambodia; third generation Buddhists in the United States; and Hindu temples in the Caribbean. Ghetto religions-those that rely on an element of isolation to survive-are dying out. Hare Krishnas chant in Saint Peter's Square in Rome; Christianity is reappearing in China; and young Indian untouchables calling themselves panthers recently began converting to Buddhism to escape the Hindu caste system. Religions now coexist and interact whether or not theologians or mullahs or bishops approve. Religious pluralism is an irreducible fact.1

      Theologian Harvey Cox's description of the reality of religious pluralism in Many Mansions: A Christian's Encounter with Other Faiths, cited above, is even truer today than when Cox wrote it in the late twentieth century. Religious pluralism is for most people in the developed world an inescapable fact. Prior to the middle of the twentieth century, interaction between the major religions of the world most often caused conflict. At times this conflict escalated into war, as in the Islamic jihads of the seventh, eighth, and fifteenth centuries that sought to spread Islam to Europe2 and the Spanish conquest of the Americas, which was partially motivated by a desire to bring Christianity to the otherwise hell-bound natives.3 In other places and times, the conflict was a contest for domination without resort to war, as in many of the Christian efforts to evangelize Africa, India, and China.4

      But most of the time, interaction between the major religions of the world was limited because the religions were each confined to their own geographic areas. A noteworthy exception to these generalizations is the spread of Buddhism to China and Japan where the people peacefully syncretized it into the pre-existent religions of Confucianism and Shinto.5 The most tragic exception to this general overview is the relentless persecution of Jews by Christians that culminated in the Holocaust.6

      The advent of rapid and easily accessible communications and transportation coupled with increased immigration is propelling the world towards true religious pluralism. The United States is a microcosm near the vanguard of this trend. Contrary to much popular opinion, the United States is no longer only a Judeo-Christian nation. Sizable numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims now comprise vital parts of the U.S. population. Indigenous religions such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Native American religions, and various new age groups are also important features of the religious geography of the United States.7 The divine service advertisements in metropolitan newspapers and the yellow pages of phone books clearly reflect this increasing pluralism.

      Will Herberg in his seminal 1955 study, Protestant-Catholic-Jew, prophesied that Interfaith [activity] in this country is the device that American experience has elaborated for bringing some measure of harmony among the religious communities and in some degree mitigating their tensions and suspicions.8 The passage of time has disproved his optimistic prediction. Rather than greater harmony, religion in America seems better characterized as increasingly competitive and divisive. Conservative Catholics and Protestants who formed coalitions against more liberal Catholics and Protestants in the 1950's9 now seem to do so with more vigor and animosity, as evidenced, for example, in the abortion controversy. Fundamental cleavages in American Protestantism that appeared dead or dying in the fifties were merely sleeping.10 The emergence of new age and Eastern religions as major forces in this country are trends which Herberg failed to foresee.

      Many people within and without the church are increasingly troubled by the proximity of other faiths. They want to know: is only one religion the true faith? If so, why is God so exclusive? If not, which is the best religion? If all religions are the same, how does one choose a religion? If there is no one, true religion, why believe in any religion? These are not new questions. Individuals are simply asking the questions with fresh poignancy and greater frequency. Consequently, Christian clergy ministering in the United States in the twenty-first century will need a clear theological understanding of the relationship between Christianity and other religions.

      People sometimes unhelpfully confuse interfaith relations with Christian ecumenism, i.e., the relationship between groups that mutually recognize one another as Christian. Theological pluralism, as used in this volume, denotes only interaction between Christianity and other, non-Christian religions. Ecumenical issues that divide various Christian groups are beyond the scope of this work. Additionally, even as Christianity has several models for understanding interfaith relationships, other religions have one or more models for understanding interfaith relationships. Examination of those non-Christian models is also beyond the scope of the present work.

      Four theological models for describing the relationship of Christianity to other religions are possible. The model developed in Chapter 1, the Christ Alone Model, is completely exclusive: Christianity is the only path to salvation. A second model, the Theocentric Model (Chapter 4), is completely inclusive: all religions are, in some measure, good, true, and valuable. The other two models, the Christ Essential Model (Chapter 2) and the Christ Universal Model (Chapter 3) represent positions

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