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Our consideration of the complexities which frame the apparent conflict of the two claims thus ends inconclusively, without answering the question as to which claim is true. The consideration may therefore be viewed with suspicion, as a merely convenient postponement of a difficult choice that needs to be made. But it may also be viewed as a hard-headed acknowledgment of the embodied, textured nature of the claims, and as a contribution to the necessary foundation for whatever progress one is going to make in evaluating theological truths in a comparative context. |
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3. The Truth of the Theology of Religions
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An important task within the larger project of reformulating theological truth after comparison is the recomposition of the questions posed in the theology of religions, questions such as these: "Is one religion more true than another?" "Is it true that Christ is the only savior? Is Christ the savior for Hindus too?" ''What model of religions, as related to one another and to the truth, serves as the best basis for the comparative enterprise?" |
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I have deferred such frequently posed questions because the practice of reading comparatively needed to be justified practically before a reconsideration of theologies about religions. Whatever theological judgments we might draw regarding the validity of religious traditions, we can in fact read and compare, we do understand in part, misunderstand in part; we are in fact changed in the process, and we do in fact reread our traditions differently while yet remaining members of our original communities. All of this occurs regardless of our judgments about religions, and it precedes whatever might be achieved in the theology of religions. The priority of the engagement in comparison over our theories about it needs to be noted and preserved. |
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The various positions one might then articulate in a theology of religionsall religions are one; all religions are merely different; one religion alone is true, the rest untrue; the rest partially truebecome interesting only after reading has taken place, when these positions can be refined in light of actual |
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