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Religious Pluralism & the Movement of Jesus
By jason | May 3, 2008
Here’s a question for you:
Can someone believe Jesus is the one who brought about their personal salvation but at the same time that salvation can come through other religious systems?
To say it differently, can someone be a religious pluralist and a Christian?
Go.
Topics: Missional Movements, Theology |
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Oooo. The tough questions. This may or may not get interesting, depending on who reads and actually decides to comment.
The difficulty that I find with this question is that, since I would not consider myself a religious pluralist, I would only want to know the answer so that I might be able to determine the validity of a person’s Christianity (often times so that I might predict their eternal destination). And ultimately, I’m not entirely convinced that I need to have the answer to that question sometimes.
And in the missional conversations I’ve had that gravitate towards a seemingly pluralistic attitude, I’ve heard more of a desire towards humility with regards to these questions than actual pluralism, per se. I’ve heard a great number of individuals labeled as pluralists simply because they would not answer definitively about the “good Muslim vs. the bad Christian” scenarios. And I think there may be some wisdom in such an attitude.
But I don’t believe that a humility marked by the now so-ever-cliche “generous orthodoxy” lacks actual conviction, simply assuming that because of the freedom of relativism Jesus is just as good as the next guy. I think that most of us who might hope to be free from trying or pretending to have the right answers really do believe the truth and power of the gospel. It just is ultimately not up to us when it comes to who’s “in” and who’s “out.” In fact, in Jesus’ day, it was precisely the people who always wanted to show the lines between “in” and “out” who Jesus wrote off for not getting it.
Have I met people who openly claim Christian faith and a pluralistic worldview? Yes. But the question I ask myself in my relationship with them is about how I might love them, which is the same question I hope to ask with all people (though I often do not). The answer to that question is between this pluralist who goes by “Christian” and the Christ they say they follow. I wouldn’t want to insert myself into that relationship just so I could know.
But that’s just me. Hey, whatever answers you guys come up with are probably all right, too.