|
|
|
|
|
|
|
knowledge of one or more religions, and rearticulated as extensions of the practice of reading. Even if one wishes to place the theology of religions at the beginning of one's treatise about religions, this theology is nevertheless best composed only after comparison has already occurred. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A postcomparative theology of religionsin this case, a theology of religions after Advaita Vedantamust replicate the dialectical activity of reading, whereby the "new" is read through and after one's original Text, and according to the rules by which we construct and read the world in terms of our community's privileged texts.
34 Like other acts of juxtaposition, this dialectical act of reading creates a new signification for the non-Christian texts, and may distort as well as enhance their original meanings; likewise, new meanings will be constructed for the Bible and the theological systems composed from it, new meanings that can occur only due to the event of juxtaposition with these non-Christian texts. Only in an attentive recognition of this creative juxtaposition can a useful theology of religions be composed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The three standard theologies of religions may summarized as follows: the exclusivist theology of religions holds that salvation is in Christ alone, and that Christianity is the only authentic (human) mediation of salvation; the pluralist theology of religions holds that there are no grounds for privileging one religion as the best of religions, and that salvation is mediated equally through many religions; the inclusivist theology of religions holds that salvation occurs through Christ alone, but also that people of other religious traditions may nevertheless be saved in their own traditions, even if they do not explicitly recognize Christ.35 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whatever the merits such models may have, they are almost always essentially abstract designs, developed without reference to any particular religious tradition other than the Christian. To be taken seriously in a comparative context, each will have to be rewritten with a far great commitment to detail and examples. At this point, however, the inclusivist positionitself usually developed in abstractionstands forth as the most useful of the three. With its distinctive tension between an adherence to the universal claim of one's own religion and an ac- |
|
|
|
|
|