Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue

by Jacques Dupuis

Overview

In this incisive and important volume, Jacques Dupuis offers new insights on the most important issue facing Christian theology today — giving an account of Christian faith as Christians go more deeply along the road of dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religious traditions. His task is to square a dogmatic circle. How does one do justice to the Gospel claim that Jesus the Christ is the final and universal savior of all humankind in every age, while also doing justice to the experience that truth, grace, holiness, and power are experienced in other religious traditions? In the first six chapters Dupuis reviews the history of the Western Christian tradition's teaching on other religious Ways through the breakthrough at Vatican Council II. In chapters 7 and 8 he reviews the critical issues of uniqueness of Christ and Christian proposals to account for the mediation of salvation in other religious Ways. He discusses also the relationship between the Reign of God, the Church, and the Religions. In chapter 9 he explores the nature and role of dialogue in a pluralistic society. In chapter 10 offers sage reflections on interreligious prayer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781570754401
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	01/01/2002
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jacques Dupuis, S.J., (1923-2004) taught theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and at the Vidyajyoti College of Theology in Delhi, India. His other books include Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism and Who Do You Say I Am?

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
	Three Theological Perspectives	2
	From Confrontation to Dialogue	5
	From Interreligious Dialogue to a Theology of Religious Pluralism	8
	Outline and Development of This Book	11
1.	Jesus, the Apostolic Church, and the Religions	17
	Jesus and the Religions	20
	The Horizon of the Reign of God	21
	Entry of the Gentiles into the Reign of God	23
	The Universality of the Reign of God	25
	The Reign of God and the Religions	29
	The Apostolic Church and the Religions	31
	The Law Written on the Heart	33
	The Unknown God	35
	God Shows No Partiality	37
	God Desires Everyone to Be Saved	39
2.	At the Crossroads of Vatican II	45
	Pre-Vatican II Theology of the Religions	47
	Fulfillment Theory: The Binary Danielou-de Lubac	47
	The Inclusive Presence of Christ: The Divergence between Rahner and Panikkar	52
	Vatican II: A Watershed?	59
	Positive Values Contained in Religious Traditions	61
	Toward a Balanced Critical Appraisal	64
	The Postconciliar Magisterium	67
	The Pontificate of Paul VI	67
	The Pontificate of John Paul II	68
3.	Christianity and the Religions in Recent Theology	74
	Paradigm Shifts	76
	From Ecclesiocentrism to Christocentrism	76
	From Christocentrism to Theocentrism	77
	Further Models and Beyond	79
	Regnocentrism and Soteriocentrism	79
	Logocentrism and Pneumatocentrism	81
	Beyond Western Categories	84
	Toward a Model of Inclusive Pluralism	87
	The Christological Question	87
	A Trinitarian Christology as Interpretative Key	90
4.	The God of the Covenant and the Religions	96
	The Universal History of Salvation	98
	Beyond the Judeo-Christian Tradition	98
	The Saving Histories of Peoples	100
	God's Covenants with the Peoples	103
	Covenants Never Revoked	103
	The Trinitarian Structure of History	109
5.	"In Many and Various Ways"	114
	The God of Revelation	117
	"All Have the Same God"	117
	The "Wholly Other" and the "Self of the Self"	119
	Words and Word of God	125
	Words of God and Sacred Books	125
	The "Fullness" of Revelation in Jesus Christ	129
	Revelation, Differentiated and Complementary	132
6.	The Word of God, Jesus Christ, and the Religions of the World	138
	The Universal Action of the Word as Such	139
	The Wisdom of God in the Wisdom Tradition	140
	The Word of God in the Prologue to St. John's Gospel	142
	The Doctrine of the Logos Spermatikos in the Early Fathers of the Church	147
	The Universality of the Word and the Centrality of the Event of Jesus Christ	156
	The Centrality of the Event of Jesus Christ	157
	The Universality of the Word	159
7.	The "One Mediator" and "Participated Mediations"	163
	Universal Savior and Unique Mediator	169
	New Testament Christology Revisited and Interpreted	169
	The Human Face of God	173
	The Universal Presence of the Holy Spirit	178
	Mediation and Mediations	182
	Various Paths to a Common Goal	182
	Participated Mediations of Salvation	185
	Discernment of Saving Values	190
8.	The Reign of God, the Church, and the Religions	195
	Reign of God and Church: Identity or Distinction?	197
	Recent History of Relationships between Church and Reign of God	197
	Joint Members and Builders of the Reign of God	201
	"Outside the Church No Salvation"?	203
	The Church and the Religions in the Reign of God	206
	Necessity of the Church	206
	The Church, Sacrament of the Kingdom	213
9.	Interreligious Dialogue in a Pluralistic Society	218
	The Theological Foundation of Dialogue	222
	"Mystery of Unity"	222
	Dialogue and Proclamation	225
	The Challenges and Fruits of Dialogue	228
	Commitment and Openness	228
	Personal Faith and the Experience of the Other	230
	Mutual Enrichment	232
10.	Interreligious Prayer	236
	Praying Together: Why?	239
	From Dialogue to Common Prayer	239
	The Religions, God's Gifts to Humankind	241
	Praying Together: How?	242
	Common Prayer between Christians and Jews	243
	Common Prayer between Christians and Muslims	245
	Common Prayer between Christians and the "Others"	248
	Conclusion	253
	Religious Pluralism in Principle	254
	Mutual Asymmetrical Complementarity	255
	A Qualitative Leap	258
	Postscript	260
	Index	265
	A Word on "the Christ Mandala" of Nalini Jayasuriya	276