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Postliberal Approaches to the Theology of Religions: Presentation, Assessment, and Critical Appropriation Joel Okamoto Concordia Seminary, St

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Postliberal Approaches to the Theology of Religions: Presentation, Assessment, and Critical Appropriation Joel Okamoto Concordia Seminary, St Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Theology Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 5-1-1997 Postliberal Approaches to the Theology of Religions: Presentation, Assessment, and Critical Appropriation Joel Okamoto Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/thd Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Okamoto, Joel, "Postliberal Approaches to the Theology of Religions: Presentation, Assessment, and Critical Appropriation" (1997). Doctor of Theology Dissertation. 22. https://scholar.csl.edu/thd/22 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Theology Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1 Christianity and the Challenge of the World Religions 1 Exclusivism, Inclusivism, and Pluralism 2 Looking beyond Exclusivism, Inclusivism, and Pluralism 7 Purposes, Nature, and Outline of this Study 11 Toward a Postliberal Theology 14 A Review of Relevant Literature 25 PART ONE TOWARD A POSTLIBERAL THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS TWO RELIGION AND THE LOGIC OF REVELATION: KARL BARTH'S POSTLIBERAL THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS 39 Toward a Theological Evaluation of Religion 44 Barth on the Theological Interpretation of Religion 51 THREE GEORGE LINDBECK AND A CULTURAL-LINGUISTIC APPROACH TO THE RELATIONSHIP OF CHRISTIANITY TO OTHER RELIGIONS 71 Lindbeck on Models of Religion 73 The Cultural-Linguistic Approach and the Theology of Religions 82 Religions and Their Claims to Unsurpassibility 84 Christians and Interreligious Encounters 89 Salvation of Non-Christians 95 Truth among Religions 98 FOUR DOCTRINE AND THE UNIQUENESS OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES: PAUL GRIFFITHS ON RELIGIOUS PLURALITY 106 Doctrine and the Problem of Religious Plurality 109 The Uniqueness of Christian Doctrine 111 Doctrine and Interreligious Dialogue 122 Cases of Recognition 124 Dealing with Difference: An Apology for Apologetics 127 FIVE J. A DINOIA ON THE DIVERSITY OF RELIGIOUS AIMS 137 Theology and Dialogue 139 The Diversity of Religious Aims and the Universality of Salvation 146 iii The Diversity of Aims and Truth in Other Religions 150 Theology in Dialogue 155 Religious References and Interreligious Conversations 159 Religious Predications and Interreligious Conversations 163 PART TWO AN ASSESSMENT AND CRITICAL APPROPRIATION OF THE POSTL1BERAL APPROACH TO THE THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS SIX TOWARD A NONFOUNDATIONAL THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS . 169 Nonfoundational Approaches to Theology—Present and Past 171 Questions of Truth 173 Religious Plurality and Christian Truth 174 Realism 182 Religious Experience and Religious Plurality 185 Learning from Other Religions 193 SEVEN KNOWLEDGE, SALVATION, AND MISSION 196 Theology and Rules 198 Discerning the Logic of the Lutheran Confessions 201 Knowledge of God in the World Religions 204 Salvation in Christ and the World Religions 211 Christian Mission in Postliberal Perspective 213 The Theology of Religions in Postliberal Perspective 214 CONCLUSION 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY 231 iv CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Christianity and the Challenge of the World Religions In recent decades, the variety and vitality of the world religions have become newly apparent to Western Christians. Factors such as the availability of rapid travel and communications, changing patterns in immigration, and international trade and business have brought unprecedented numbers of Christians into first-hand acquaintance with the followers, beliefs, and practices of non-Christian religions. This encounter has given a sense of urgency to questions that previously had not often been asked: Do other religions know the same God? Do they look toward the same goal? Where their teachings resemble those of the Christian faith, then do they share to some extent in the truth? If their teachings are quite different from those of the Christian faith, then are these differences important? What will be the final destiny of those who never have had the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Can God really condemn them, especially if they have sought, as best they can, to order their lives according to and put their hope in some ultimate reality? A new area of Christian theological study has emerged in response to the challenges that the awareness of religious plurality poses: the "theology of religions." The scientific study of religion (Religionswissenschaft) seeks a disinterested course of investigation. Its 1 2 aim, as Max Muller put it, is "an impartial and truly scientific comparison of all, or at all events, of the most important religions of mankind."' A theology of religions, however, pursues an understanding and evaluation of the non-Christian religious communities from a Christian standpoint, interpreting them, not on a supposedly neutral basis, but on the basis of the Christian faith. Exclusivism, Inclusivism, and Pluralism The field of the theology of religions has its own variety and vitality. In coming to terms with this variety, it has become usual to distinguish different theologies of religions with the threefold typology of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism.' 'F. Max Muller, Introduction to the Science of Religion (London, 1873), 34; quoted in Eric J. Sharpe, Comparative Religion: A History, 2d ed. (LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court, 1986), 1. 'See, for example, Alan Race, Christians and Religious Pluralism: Patterns in the Christian Theology of Religions, 2d. ed. (London: SCM Press Ltd; and Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1993); Gavin D'Costa, Theology and Religious Pluralism (London: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1986); John Hick, A Christian Theology ofReligions: The Rainbow ofFaiths (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), 18-30; and Paul F. Knitter, One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility, preface by Hans Kfing (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1995). David J. Bosch makes the same distinctions but with different terms (exclusivism, fulfillment, and relativism) in Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology ofMission, American Society of Missiology, No. 16 (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1991), 478-483. The terms "exclusiveness" and "inclusiveness" as descriptions of Christian attitudes toward other religions were used more than twenty years before by noted historian of religion and mission theologian Hendrik Kraemer in World Cultures and World Religions (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 363-364. In his book The Intrareligious Dialogue (New York and Ramsey, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1978), Raimundo Panikkar categorized Christian attitudes toward other religions under the four headings of exclusivism, inclusivism, parallelism, and pluralism (see pp. xiv-xxviii). In the theology of religions, the term "pluralism" has two different meanings. Sometimes it is used as a description. For instance, Willem A. Visser 't Hooft defines pluralism as "a situation in which various religious, philosophical or ideological conceptions live side by side and in which none of them holds a privileged status" ("Pluralism—Temptation or Opportunity?" Ecumenical Review 18 [1966]: 129). "Pluralism," however, is also used to refer to a theological position that maintains that other religions may be equally valid ways of salvation. To avoid confusion, I shall use the term "plurality" for descriptive purposes, and reserve the use of "pluralism" for the theological position. Where quotations use "pluralism" to describe the situation of numerical plurality, either the context will make this clear, or I shall note it. 3 Exclusivism maintains Jesus Christ is the sole mediator of salvation and that this salvation is made available only through the Christian religion. Salvation is found only in the Christian religion; no other religion leads to it. Exclusivism has been the predominant attitude of the Christian church for much of its history and clearly can be traced to the New Testament.3 As Alan Race puts it: Not even the most detached reader of the New Testament can fail to gain the impression that the overall picture of Christian faith which it presents is intended to be absolute or final. It is indicated in general themes and by specific texts. With regard to the latter, the ones which most readily spring to mind are the words of Peter in Acts 4.12: 'And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,' and the words attributed to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel in John 14.6: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.' The negative evaluation which these two texts suggest is hard to ignore.' In subsequent centuries exclusivism has been part of the Church's confession.' Today, while it is often questioned and attacked, exclusivism is still held in many quarters, with the so-called "conservative evangelicals" perhaps being its most widely recognized defenders.6 'For example, this attitude is clearly articulated in the Athanasian Creed. 'Race, Christians and Religious Pluralism, 10. 'See also below, 187-188, for specifically Lutheran considerations of an exclusivist nature. 6See, for example, see the Frankfurt Declaration and the Lausanne Covenant. On the importance of evangelicals for
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