Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 21:2 (Fall 2024)
Article: Reflections On Religious Pluralism And Multiple Religious Belonging
Author: Harold A. Netland

Reflections On Religious Pluralism And Multiple Religious Belonging

Harold Netland

Harold Netland serves as professor of philosophy of religion and intercultural studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

It was my privilege to participate in the 2009 Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum on Faith and Culture. Paul F. Knitter, then the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions, and Culture at Union Theological Seminary, New York, and I addressed the question, “Pluralism: Can Only One Religion Be True?” Knitter defended the proposition that Christians can be religious pluralists; I argued against it.

When Robert Stewart first approached me about this possibility and explained to me the nature of the Greer-Heard Forum, I was immediately intrigued. This, I thought, is not your typical liberal – evangelical debate. As he puts it in the Preface to Can Only One Religion Be True? Paul Knitter and Harold Netland in Dialogue, the Forum “is to provide a venue for fair-minded dialogue to take place on subjects of importance in religion and culture.” The purpose is to bring together an evangelical and a non-evangelical, perhaps even a non-Christian, scholar for a public dialogue on controversial contemporary questions. “The goal,” he writes, “is a respectful exchange of ideas, without compromise.”1 It struck me then that this is precisely what we need more of in evangelical theological education. Now, over fifteen years later, the need for this is even greater. In leading the Greer-Heard Forums over these many years, Bob Stewart has given the academy and the church a wonderful gift by showing that evangelicals and others can come together for vigorous, yet respectful and gracious, conversation on controversial topics. May others follow in his footsteps and provide a similar service for the next generation of scholars and practitioners.

JBTM 21:2 (Fall 2024) 278

In what follows, I will briefly reflect upon the 2009 dialogue with Paul Knitter by placing that event in the broader context of evangelical discussions of religious pluralism in the 1990s and early 2000s. I will then call attention to a cluster of issues that have become prominent in the theology of religions more recently, namely, the question of multiple religious belonging.

Evangelicals And Other Religions

Widespread interest in the relation between the Christian faith and other religions among European and North American theologians and missiologists emerged after World War II. Since then, an enormous amount of literature on the theology of religions has been produced, most by Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants. Vatican II (1962–65) ushered in a much more open and positive perspective on other reli...