Leonard Theological College

Leonard Theological College (Jabalpur, MP) Name: Levin Daniel Subject: Christian Faith and Witness in Pluralistic Societies (BID06) Topic: Deal with Exclusive Passages, i.e. John 14:6; Acts 4:12 Submitted to: Mr. Abhinilesh Prakash Submission on: 27th July, 2024 Introduction Christian faith and witness in our pluralistic society represent a crucial and primary task for believers in today’s Indian social and political context. However, exclusive passages such as John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 present a different and seemingly contradictory concept. While Christianity strives to promote unity, harmony, equality, and especially inclusivity, it simultaneously asserts exclusiveness and distinctiveness in its doctrine of salvation. This paper will explore the various aspects of this exclusive claim and its implications for evangelism. John 14:6b “… No one comes to the Father except through me.” Acts 4:12 “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” 1. Pluralism and Exclusivism These above mentioned verses highlight the exclusive nature of Christianity, which can be difficult for a pluralistic world to accept, as many people are inclined to embrace and accept a diverse society. Let’s explore and discuss some of the scholarly views on this topic. John G. Stackhouse, Jr. In his publication “Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today,” Stackhouse defines pluralism in a straightforward manner, simply as “more than one.” He further elaborates on this definition with illustrations. Everything Is Beautiful: To hold the attitude that everything is beautiful is to see every option as good. Vanilla is good and so is chocolate, and so opting for one or the other is a matter of subjective preference, not objective judgment. What is said of ice-cream flavours is true of other spheres as well. All have their merits, and all should be affirmed. This attitude surfaces especially when one encounters the bewildering variety of religions. Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, 1 Native religion, New Age varieties, Wicca - all are good and simply different from each other, not better or worse than each other. They all ought to be affirmed as valid spiritual paths.1 In contrast to this view, Christianity asserts exclusivity, particularly concerning the doctrine of salvation. As a monotheistic faith, Christianity aims to promote inclusivism, unity, and mutual respect for each religion or path. This raises the challenge of determining the appropriate approaches to achieve these goals without compromising the doctrine of salvation and the belief in salvation solely through Jesus. Jacques Dupuis, S. J He opines that in the field of biblical and New Testament exegesis of John 14:6b and Acts 4:12, the claim is that a sound recourse to historical criticism leads unmistakably to a redimensioning of Jesus Christ, on more than one ground: the context of the New Testament affirmation about his person and work; the literary genre of these affirmations; the unbridgeable gap and total discontinuity between the claims of the historical Jesus and the interpretation made of him by the Church apostolic. Jesus, it is said, was entirely God-centred, he announced God and his Reign; the apostolic Church’s Christ-centred proclamation falsified Jesus’ message. The Church apostolic was first responsible for the paradigm shift that took place from theocentrism to Christocentrism; it is time to reverse the situation by a new turn back to theocentrism. 2 John Hick says, If Jesus was literally God incarnate, and if it is by his death alone that men can be saved, and by their response to him alone that they can appropriate that salvation, then the only doorway to eternal life is Christian faith. It would follow from this that the large majority of the human race so far have not been saved.3 For as historian Jaroslav Pelikan remarks, “Regardless of what anyone may personally believe about Him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries.”? No serious discussion of the relation of Christianity to other faiths can proceed very far without coming to grips with the towering figure of Jesus. Sooner or later, the blunt question put by Jesus to his followers- “Who do people say I am?” (Mark 8:27, NIV) must be confronted. For Christian faith includes, above all else, commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.4 But who is this Jesus whom Christians worship as Lord and Saviour and what are the implications of commitment to Jesus for those who claim other lords and saviours? Is it John G. Stackhouse, Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 5-6. 2 Jacques Dupuis, S. J., Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (New York: Orbis Books, 2001), 281. 3 John Hick, “Jesus and the World Religions,” in The Myth of God Incarnate, ed. John Hick (London: SCM, 1977), 180. 4 Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History Of Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 1. 1 2 theologically and morally permissible to hold today that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed God incarnate, that salvation is mediated exclusively through him, and that adherents of other religions too must recognise him as their personal Lord and Saviour? What of those who, through no fault of their own, have no opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are they to be denied salvation simply because of the “accidents” of history? These are perplexing questions which must trouble all thoughtful Christians who maintain the uniqueness and normativity of Jesus Christ for salvation.5 2. Who is Jesus? Paul Knitter, a contemporary Roman Catholic theologian and articulate spokesman for pluralism, devotes a chapter of his influential book “No Other Name?” to what he calls “theocentric Christology.” Knitter admits “that Jesus is unique, but with a uniqueness defined by its ability to relate to, that is, to include and be included by other unique religious figures.” He views Jesus “not as exclusive or even as normative, but as theocentric, as a universally relevant manifestation (sacrament, incarnation) of divine revelation and salvation.”6. Knitter views Jesus Christ as the only Messiah for the entire universe, regardless of time, era, generation, culture, tradition, monarchy, shared society, communist society, democratic society, or societies with multiple religious traditions. He emphasizes presenting Jesus as the universal saviour, the saviour for all humanity (John 14:6b & Acts 4:12). However, this view is exclusive because it asserts that the only possible way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. Some scholars interpret this view as inclusive by arguing that salvation through Jesus Christ is available to every individual personally and collectively, for the entire human race throughout the generations, regardless of their beliefs, religious traditions, or deities they worship. This perspective, however, leads to a dilemma of religious differences. It unintentionally suggests a sense of superiority over other religions and implies that other religions do not represent the Truth, while the Act of the Cross is the exclusive Truth. 3. What does it Include? – (John 14:6b & Acts 4:12) The text makes three assertions, plainly and strongly: Harold A. Netland, Dissonant Voices: Religious Pluralism and the Question of Truth (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 1991), 235-36. 6 Paul F. Knitter, No Other Name?: A Critical Survey of Christian Attitude Toward the World Religions (New York: Orbis Books, 1985), 41-52. 5 3 • • • First, Peter makes a strong claim about the incomparability of Jesus and the salvation he brings. insists that Jesus has introduced the long awaited messianic salvation into history. Second, these text leads us to identify the nature of salvation, as holistic as well as Messianic. It also emphasizes especially on the access to be in relationship with God. It includes everything and everyone in the world of religious pluralism to be able to access the relationship with God. Third, the messianic and holistic salvation which the text is referring to is available only through faith in the name of Jesus. Salvation in its fullness is available to humankind only because God in the person of his son Jesus provided it. In the name of Jesus is an inclusive term, because it does not have any condition of the person’s background and who they are as well as what religious traditions they follow. 4. What does it Exclude? - (John 14:6b & Acts 4:12) The text points out two aspects that seems to be exclusive: • • First, one such question is the eschatological fate of unevangelised people, whether they lived before Christ came or after he arose from death. The text speaks forcefully about the incomparable power of Jesus’ name to save those who hear and respond to the goodness but it does not comment on the fate of the heathen. Second, neither do these texts’ declaration render a judgment, positive or negative, an another question that interests us a great deal. Later passages in Acts, such as 10:35, 14:17 and 17:23. Come closer to addressing that issue. But even they do not speak to it directly and decisively. It simply means that these texts do not confirm the judgement for the non-Christians. Subsequently, the exclusive nature of these texts is seemingly revealed by above mentioned two aspects. 5. Which Salvation? Which Liberation? The pluralistic theology of religions, as it has been exposed so far, looked at the various religious traditions as representing as many different paths leading to the same ultimate goal. It did not consider distinct ultimate ends as possible goals to which the different traditions would lead. The common goal of all traditions needed, of course, to be described in general terms that could, so it was thought to be applied to all religious paths. The ultimate goal for all is God or any respective names that they would like to identify with. Suppose, then, we define salvation in a very concrete way, as an actual change in human beings, a change which can be identified, when it can be identified by its fruits. We then find that we are talking about some- thing that is of central concern to each of the great world faiths. 4 Each in its different way calls us to transcend the ego point of view, which is the source of all selfishness, greed, exploitation, cruelty, and injustice, and to become re-centred in that ultimate mystery for which we, in our Christian language, use the term God.7 Almost all the great traditions, including Christianity, are directed towards a transformation of human existence from self-centeredness to a re-centring in what in our inadequate human terms we speak of as God, or as Ultimate Reality, or the Transcendent, or the Real. And what is variously called salvation or liberation or enlightenment or awakening consists in this transformation from self-centredness to reality-centeredness. 5.1. Various Paths and Common Goal: “Various rivers flowing to the same ocean”: this and other similar expressions have often served as catchwords for a pluralistic theology of religions, especially in the context of neo-Hinduism. As rivers flowing to the same ocean, so too the various religions tend to the same Divine Mystery. Paths differ, but the ultimate End is common to all.8 6. Is Christ the Only Way? Christians confess Christ as the way. This means not merely that Christ opens the way to salvation but that Christ is the way, because being “in Christ” enables us to travel this way of salvation to its ultimate conclusion. The Christian way leads only to one end and it finally must go through or be “in” Christ, as a road must go through a tunnel which is the only passage in a mountain. But the paths leading to this end do not start from only one place. As you look at a map, you may see a destination which itself is reached only by one way. From all the various points on that map, however, you would follow quite different paths to come to that one way and so reach that destination. Over the last necessary stage, these paths become the same. Without that ultimate one way it would not be possible to get to this destination at all, from any of those points. 6.1.Christians and Other Faiths: What does all this imply about other religious faiths? The first thing that it implies is that they are to be regarded with utmost seriousness and respect. They are not to be made or remade into anonymous forms of Christianity. Some maintain that every faith works to reach the same salvation, because Christ really works in a hidden way through them all. It simply Jacques Dupuis, S. J., Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (New York: Orbis Books, 2001), 30710. 8 Jacques Dupuis, S. J., Toward a Christian Theology of… 313-14. 7 5 means that you cannot come ultimately to God who is definitively revealed in Christ, but by Christ only. Christians do not regard other faiths as wrong in the sense that they try to be Christian and fail. The point is that other faiths are not trying to be Christian. They are not seeking reconciliation and communion with the personal God who is One with Christ. We must say of other faiths that they succeed in being what they intend to be. The Buddhist is not seeking heaven and just calling it nirvana. The Buddhist is seeking nirvana, a state that is wholly different from heaven, incompatible with what Christians know of God’s personal nature and of the value of created personhood; likewise all of the religious traditions have their own ways. Christians do not mean that other faiths are wrong in the sense that they produce nothing good or beautiful. In both respects they may equal or surpass Christianity. This may even be so in terms of what we might call spiritual technique. Christians mean, or ought to mean, that these other faiths are wrong as the framework of ultimate belief. This is an objective claim about the nature of the cosmos and God’s presence in it. Christians also mean that insofar as these faiths do not take the true measure of God and humanity, they cannot alone solve the human problem. Is there salvation In all religions? If salvation is an experience of mystical union with “the One,” then Hinduism can save. If it is an experience of illumination and release from all desire, including the desire for good, then Buddhism can save. If it is faithfulness to one’s ancestors, then Shintoism can save. If it is revolution against a privileged class and for state ownership of the means of production, then Marxism can save.9 Conclusion I conclude that John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 makes a strong, definitive and exclusive claim about the messianic, holistic salvation which Jesus has brought into the world. It is a salvation which is incomparable and without rival and is available only through the name of Jesus. But the text does not say anything which would exclude from eternal salvation most of the people who have lived on the earth until now. Various scholars gave different opinions and views in the exclusive side of Christian Faith especially while Christianity tends to promote unity, harmony and equality. Let us be pinched by this different types of perspectives and head towards promoting justice, peace, equality and unity among various groups regardless of what should be excluded in the world of religious pluralism. S. Mark Heim, Is Christ the Only Way?: Christian Faith in a Pluralistic World (New York: Judson Press, 1985), 129-40. 9 6 Bibliography o o o o o o o Netland, Harold A. Dissonant Voices: Religious Pluralism and the Question of Truth. Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 1991. Knitter, Paul F. No Other Name?: A Critical Survey of Christian Attitude Toward the World Religions. New York: Orbis Books, 1985. Stackhouse, John G. Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Dupuis, Jacques S. J. Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. New York: Orbis Books, 2001. Hick, John. “Jesus and the World Religions,” in The Myth of God Incarnate. Ed. John Hick London: SCM, 1977. Pelikan, Jaroslav. Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. Heim, Mark S. Is Christ the Only Way?: Christian Faith in a Pluralistic World. New York: Judson Press, 1985. 7