Lesson 72 - Christian Approaches to other Religions in Contemporary
Theology
I.
Introduction
A. When one studies the Bible, they cannot help come away with the exclusivist ideas it holds
about Salvation.
B. Jesus Christ is the only Savior at the expense of all other religions and ideas.
C. Contemporary theology, though, bent on its liberal or modernistic theological ideas, moves
away from this to create a more inclusivistic and toleration of other religions.
1. David Tracy says that there is no one way to heaven.
2. John B. Cobb Jr. notes that there is no “essence to religion.”
D. Religions are better understood as cultural expressions and religious movements through
the centuries.
II.
Pluralism has resulted here
A. Which holds that all the religious traditions of humanity are equally valid paths to the same
core of religious reality.
B. The most significant advocate of the Pluralist approach is John Hick (b. 1922).
1. In his God and the Universe of Faiths (1973) he argues that the church should move
away from a Christ centered approach to a God-centered approach.
2. Describing this change as a Copernican Revolution of sorts, he believes that all religions
lead men to heaven and all are inclusive to idea of God.
3. But this, in reality, is abandoning the Christ and Savior of God, and demonstrates a
pluralistic problem of contradictory ideas.