Toward An Evangelical Theology Of Religions -- By: Clark H. Pinnock
Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 33:3 (Sep 1990)
Article: Toward An Evangelical Theology Of Religions
Author: Clark H. Pinnock
JETS 33:3 (September 1990) p. 359
Toward An Evangelical Theology Of Religions
Religious pluralism is widely recognized to be one of the primary challenges to theology in our time. The consensus exists for a number of good reasons, including worldwide communications and large-scale immigration that have put us into almost daily contact with people of other religions, the fact that immigrants to the west have created worshiping communities in our cities and towns, urgent human needs on a global scale that suggest the advisability of interreligious dialogue and cooperation, a softening of attitudes since the Second Vatican Council took the lead three decades ago in advocating a more inclusive approach toward other faiths, and western guilt stemming from the age of colonialism affecting people’s attitude to world missions. On another level there is also what we could call an ideology of pluralism that pervades modern thinking and urges an end to all exclusivist religious claims. Theology today is under tremendous pressure to give a reason for its hope in Christ in the context of world religions.1
Evangelicals so far have tended to ignore this problem, and evangelical books that discuss it are few. Most seem content to maintain the older exclusivist attitudes based on a narrow reading of the ancient text in Cyprian: “Outside the Church, no salvation.”2 They see little or no hope for the unevangelized here or hereafter. But in 1989 a sign of change appeared on the horizon. I refer to the decision of the Lausanne II conference held in Manila to place the challenge of religious pluralism firmly on their agenda and to have commissioned Colin Chapman, a British missionary statesman, to prepare the document. Remarkably the text he prepared was open to dialogue with other religions and cautiously hopeful
* Clark Pinnock is professor of theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
JETS 33:3 (September 1990) p. 360
about the fate of unreached peoples.3 Though one cannot be dogmatic, it seems reasonable to hope that this event will mark a turning point in our thinking and have wide repercussions in the evangelical camp worldwide. My hope would be that, just as Lausanne I in 1974 placed social action on its own agenda and subsequently onto the agenda of other evangelicals, so Lausanne II will become our Vatican II, opening people’s minds up to a more globally inclusive vision. In any case, the time has come for evangelicals to begin to address the issues surrounding dialogue and a Christian theology of religions.
Needless to say, I am n...
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