Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered: The Myth of a Pluralistic Theology of Religions

Faith Meets Faith

by Gavin D'Costa

Christian Uniqueness The Myth of a Pluralistic Theology of Religions

Genres: Theology

Paperback

First published September 1, 1990

Reviews

[Robert Tessmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was a bit of a challenge and I did not find every chapter to be great, but the last third of the book was very good. This volume stimulates reflection at the highest level. It is not, however, easy reading. But to anyone prepared to do real thinking, it is a gem.

The following review was written by Herbert C. Jackson

Two books in the Orbis Series in Interreligious Dialogue focus the question of whether Christianity was unique among religions and whether apart from Christ there is no salvation. The first, in 1987, was the Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, edited by John Hick
and Paul F. Knitter. Noted scholars, such as Gordon Kaufman, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Raimundo Panikkar, and Paul Knitter, precipitated a strong and widespread reaction in the Euro-American world.

In this reviewer’s judgment, the D’Costa book is a superb response to Hick and Knitter. The authors advance the uniqueness position of Christianity vis-a-vis the pluralistic/equality position
of the earlier volume. The authors in Part I of the D’Costa book take the Christian doctrine of the
Trinity as the criterion for evaluating the comparative orientation of religions. This is an excellent touchstone, for no other religion understands Ultimate Reality as a universal personal God who is at once the Transcendent (Creatorpather), the tangible and active Revealer (Son/Christ), and the continuously Immanent in human life (Holy Spirit). This unique view of Ultimate Reality provides
anew a basis for the missionay obligation, i.e., the obligation to go beyond dialogue to a renewed effort to bring those of other or no religion to Christian faith and life. This view is clearly put forth by Francis Clooney, SJ, in an effective setting entitled “Reading the World in Christ: From Comparison to Inclusivism” (63-80). He writes: “Inclusivism’s insistence that salvation is in Christ alone and yet is universally available is a perplexing double claim, which, if merely stated, may suggest incoherence. Yet . . . this complexity appears as part of its vitality . . . . The inclusivist insists on both salvation in Christ alone and the true universality of salvation” (73). And this stance is not, or should not, be triumphalist or imperialist, whereas, ironically, the pluralist views of the Hick-Knitter volume are!

This book sets the issues of uniqueness squarely in the intellectual (theological)dimension. A number of world religions have similarly high ethical views, but their intellectual foundations provide
radically different motivational and experiential perceptions of meaning and objectives (ix, xxi). However, the intellectual approach results in some of the authors being obtuse and unnecessarily
verbose; this is particularly the case with Christoph Schwbel in his chapter titled “Particularity, Universality, and the Religions” (30-46).

One of the most interesting aspects of this volume is the stance to which John B. Cobb, Jr., comes in his chapter, “Beyond ‘Pluralism’” (81-95). Cobb was invited to contribute to The Myth of Christian Uniqueness but declined because he realized he did not share in the consensus of the conference that expressed the views expounded in The Myth! His creative pilgrimage led him to the doctrine of conceptual relativism”. He proposes an “integration of the wisdom of alien traditions into one’s
Christian vision,” and judges “that it is a task whose time has come and that Christian faith offers us unique motivation and unique resources for the task”.

Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jilrgen Moltmann, and Lesslie Newbigin each contributed insightful chapters. Paul J. Griffiths of the University of Chicago Divinity School sets forth a culminating position of the DCosta book in his excellent chapter titled ‘The Uniqueness of Christian Doctrine Defended (157-171). John Milbank of the University of Lancaster [England] caps the discussion by calling for ‘The End of Dialogue” (174-191).

This volume stimulates reflection at the highest level. It is not, however, easy reading. But to anyone prepared to do real thinking, it is a gem. It cannot be praised too highly.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

And again, my remedial education continues. There are some superb essays in here, criticizing the liberal religious pluralism of John Hick and others. In the course of asserting the value of Trinitarian doctrine, Christ-centered faith, and the irreducible difference of "religions," the contributors make strong cases that such pluralism resorts all-too-easily to divine "mystery" as a way to avoid difficult debates, mistakes the particularity of Jesus Christ (and of, say, the Buddha, etc.) for merely local and extraneous detail, and delivers the religious adherents of the world over to the distinctively Western social and cultural mode of consumerism. Highlights for me include the essays by D'Costa, John B. Cobb, Jr., and Ken Surin (the latter is pretty devastating).

Good conversations in my upper level undergrad class, although we were selective. I don't think my gang could make much of, say, John Milbank's essay, or Rowan Williams', or Surin's.