The study of the meaning of the diversity of religions in God's plan is one of the most relevant sections of modern theology. At the same time, it should be recognized that the theology of non-Christian religions is taking only the first steps. We are forced to note that in this area, as in others, local practice is ahead of theological research itself. Missionary work, especially in relation to representatives of other great religions, has undergone a serious evolution, while entire sections of our theology regarding the exclusiveness of Christian Revelation, the conditions of salvation, and membership in the Church have remained almost unchanged. Meanwhile, it is in church practice that, first, a new interpretation of the Christian message, determined by modern historical requirements, is realized, they are also a challenge to the Spirit of God.
NEW HISTORICAL CONTEXT
To understand the significance of the theology of non-Christian religions today, we must begin by assessing the new historical experience of the Church at the end of the second millennium. After all, theology as hermeneutics is at the junction of the fundamental Christian experience and our concrete historical experience. I will confine myself to four points that seem to me especially important.
1. The vitality of non-Christian religions
If in the XIX century, in an era when the missionary epic coincided with colonial expansion and the obvious domination of Western civilization, the Church looked with pessimism on the future of world religions, today it is convinced of their viability.
This also applies to Islam, which is gradually spreading to the African continent and is undergoing genuine spiritual renewal, taking the form of doctrinal integrism with an anti-Western orientation. This also applies to such great Eastern religions as Hinduism and Buddhism, which retain their influence in Asia and have thousands of adherents in Europe and the United States of America.
As I will further note, it is impossible to treat non-Christian religions indifferently. Two great monotheistic religions — Judaism and Islam, in relation to which the Second Vatican Council developed a new position, should be highlighted. In the face of modern atheism and the conquests of the immanent religions that came from the East, transcendental religions feel confident. As for Judaism, we are only beginning to realize the implications for all Christian theology of revising the position of the Church in the world. Finally, we overcame the extremes of well-known apologetic s and even anti-Judaic theology, which revived a kind of Marcionism between the Old and New Testaments, as if before Jesus Christ the God of the Old Testament was no longer God-Love and the law of love for one's neighbor was not already written in the Torah.
After centuries of polemics between Jews, Christians and Muslims, it is important to think about the historical responsibility of the three great monotheistic religions for a certain image of a person, since they establish the fundamental foundations of the doctrine of human rights. And from the point of view of faith, it is entirely possible that the coexistence of the three religions dating back to Abraham is part of God's mysterious design. The fulfillment of the messianic promise in Jesus Christ did not cancel the special promise given to the Jewish people. And the Revelation received by the Prophet Muhammad can be perceived as a mysterious word of God, which continues to appeal to the conscience of Jews and Christians, warning against any temptation to idolatry, contrary to strict monotheism. The ambiguous idea of complementarity should be avoided in every way. But we can talk about the competition between all the sons of Abraham in the name of a deeper understanding of the transcendence of the personal God.
2. Awareness of the historical exclusivity of Christianity
In connection with the sustainable viability of the great religions, we are increasingly aware of the relative nature of Christianity as a historical religion. Suffice it to recall that of the total population of the planet, which today numbers 4 billion 800 million people (according to the World Bank), Christians make up 31.4% (according to the Vatican Statistical Yearbook for 1981), that is, 3% less than in 1907 g.
So, about 3 billion more people are in complete or relative ignorance of the gospel message. Twenty years ago, in Ad gentes (Decree of the Vatican Council II on missionary work — ed.), Only 2 billion were mentioned.
In addition, the study of the historical period preceding the coming of Christ inevitably compels us to return to the question of the claims of Christianity as the only true and universal religion to its exclusivity. Can Christianity be the only mediator between man and the Absolute? Should we not admit that all religions are equivalent as paths leading to the one whom we call God?
Instead of dreaming of the Christian world, the Church should reconcile with its mysterious destiny of a small herd in the big world and abandon the hope of embodying in Christianity all of the humanity with its religions and beliefs, with its civilizations and cultures. As I will say further, our theological task consists precisely in professing Christianity as a true religion, without understanding it as an “absolutist” religion, where the Absolute either includes or excludes any other truth.
TO BE CONTINUED.