lcc liberal arts studies / 2010 volume iii - LCC International University

78
URSULA GLIENECKE / REACTIONS ON CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM
The challenge of the diversity and plurality of religions has caused a shift in
theological reflection upon the relevance of other religions. Whereas in the past
Christianity has had a habit of feeling superior to other faiths, not until very recently,
only a small number of people had more than a faint (and often a distorted)
knowledge about them. As long as the world's religious heritage was practically
unknown, it was much easier to believe that the Christian revelation was
unparalleled and unique in all respects. The whole situation has changed
profoundly, as the knowledge of other traditions “increased in proportion to the
development of scholarly sciences such as anthropology, sociology of religion,
history of religions and oriental studies” (D'Costa, 1986, p. 2). The evidence of
millions of people finding spiritual strength, comfort and moral and theological
guidance in their faiths (Samartha, 1991, p. 192) for centuries as well as the
holiness encountered in the others have since prompted a revision of earlier views.
Certain sections of world Christianity have made an effort to develop a new
way of thinking about other religions. The most obvious examples are the
documents of the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church and the
new approach to inter-religious dialogue and collaboration suggested by the World
Council of Churches. They spent the latter half of the twentieth century deepening
their understanding of other cultures, improving their relationship and dialogue with
believers of other religions and pursuing social justice. New appreciation and sense
of commonality was born: “We recognise as part of the one Truth that sense of
Majesty of God and the consequent reverence in worship, which are conspicuous in
Islam, the deep sympathy for the world's sorrow and unselfish search for the way of
escape, which are the heart of Buddhism; the desire for contact with ultimate reality
conceived as spiritual, which is prominent in Hinduism; the belief in a moral order of
the universe and consequent insistence on moral conduct, which are included by
Confucianism” (Report of the Jerusalem Meeting of the IMC, 1928, p. 491). At the
same time the evangelical faction further developed their exclusivist position
regarding the possibility of salvation for non-Christians [as impossible] and devised
strategies to evangelise the whole world as soon as possible. Since the theological
difference underlying the split within Protestantism has never been settled, the
conflict has lost nothing of its initial vigour.
Three Basic Views on Religious Pluralism
When it comes to the relationship between religions and their competing truth
claims, three basic positions are known. They are called exclusivism, inclusivism
and pluralism. Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder describe the current
LCC / LIBERAL ARTS STUDIES / 2010