Salvation,Damnation, and Economic Incentives

Doctrines of salvation and damnation of the major world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—provide different incentives for performing economic activities and charitable deeds. A comparative analysis of the four religions shows that each promotes accumulation of wealth and hard work, while discouraging idleness, debt, and poverty. The primary difference across the religions is with respect to charity. Religions that allow believers to contribute to their own salvation tend to emphasize varieties of selective charity. Religions that hold salvation is only possible through divine selection stress universal charity.     

Re‐viewing Christian Theologies of Religious Diversity

While Christian theology of religions fundamentally revolves around the questions of revelation and salvation, as some scholars have shown, context also plays an important role in dialoguing/engaging with other religions. However, these context‐sensitive perspectives, which focus on common socio‐economic‐ecological concerns and multiple identities that cut across religious boundaries, generally seem to promote a pluralistic position (for commendable reasons). But this need not always be the case. In contexts (like that of rural Dalit Christianity) where communities are marginalized and threatened, it might be necessary and justifiable to make claims of exclusivism; although what is (verbally) professed could be quite different from what is actually practised. Reflecting on these observations, this essay suggests the need for theologians of religions and dialogists to be (self‐)aware of the critical and complex role that socio‐political contexts play in terms of influencing and determining (their) theological approaches toward other religions.     

The Theological Structure of Christian Faith and the Feasibility of a Global Ecological Ethic

Scientific evolutionary/ecological thinking is the basis for today's understanding that we are now in an ecological crisis. Religions, however, often resist reordering their thinking in light of scientific ideas, and this presents difficulties in trying to develop a viable global ecological ethic. In both the West and Asia religiomoral ecological concerns continue to be formulated largely in terms of traditional concepts rather than in more global terms, as scientific thinking about ecological matters might encourage them to do. The majority of this article is devoted to the kind of reformulation of Western Christian conceptions of God, humanity, and the relation between them that is necessary to address this problem. The question is then raised whether similar critical thinking about religiomoral issues raised by today's evolutionary/ecological scientific thinking is going on in Asian religions and whether it would be too presumptuous (in view of our colonial history) for us Westerners to ask for such rethinking. This leads to a final question: Without such transformations in religious traditions East and West, is the development of a truly global ecological ethic really feasible?     

Teaching the Introduction to Religions: Religious Pluralism in a Post-Colonial World

Taking seriously the implications of post-colonial theory, the authors revisit the introductory course (normally “World Religions”) as a course on the plurality of religions in contemporary U.S. culture. They explain the structure of the course, and discuss practical and ethical issues around student field visits to learn about other religions.     

The ‘Global Ethic’: Criticisms and the Possibilities of Post-secular Thinking*

This paper begins by considering the proposal of Hans Küng and others for a ‘global ethic’ (presented to the World Parliament of Religions in 1993). It briefly surveys some of the common critiques of the ethic before looking at the postmodern ethics of Zygmunt Bauman and recent philosophical and theological movements in Christian thinking that seek to move ‘beyond the secular’: e.g. Radical Orthodoxy. Following on from this, the paper considers the possible contribution of such ‘post-secular’ theological movements, particularly in terms of their ontologies of peace, beauty, and ‘participation’ in the divine. These narratives are contrasted with the ‘secular’ global ethic and the paper concludes by considering the possibility of a more fruitful trialogue between the Abrahamic religions on the basis of a post-secular discourse.     

Once More. . .

Black, Matthew (ed.), Peake's Commentary on the Bible
Mills, Watson E. and Wilson, Richard F. (eds), Mercer Commentary on the Bible. Volume 3: (Wisdom) Writings
Barrett, David B., Kurian, George T. and Johnson, Todd M., World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World (Second Edition, 2 vols)
Dupré, Louis Symbols of the Sacred     

"Demographic Futures for Christianity and the World Religions"

Abstract :  Since before 1970 Christian researchers have been tracking the massive demographic shift of Christianity to the Southern Hemisphere and noting the increasingly religious nature of populations around the world. At the same time, writers on the future of religion have been drawn to extreme portrayals of decline or revival of religion. However, the world's religious situation is replete with detailed information, drawn from enormous data collections on religious affiliation and questions about religion in government censuses. Quantitative tools, utilizing this information in the context of demography provide a more nuanced view of humankind's religious future. Demographic trends coupled with conservative estimates of conversions and defections envision over 80% of the world's population will continue to be affiliated with religions 200 years into the future. This religious future will have a profound influence on Christian theology, relations between religions, and the interaction between religion and politics.     

Blasphemy and Protection of the Faith: Legal Perspectives from the Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal traditions have all attempted to define and prohibit blasphemy: insult or verbal attack against their religion, against its rites and symbols, against God and his human representatives. Such laws could be internal (prohibiting blasphemy by members of the faith group) or external (prohibiting insult by those outside the faith). This article will first briefly trace the former, looking at how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal traditions from Antiquity and the Middle Ages define and prohibit blasphemy. The second part of the article will then focus on the second issue, looking at how Christian and Muslim legal traditions attempted to prohibit insults to the faith by adherents of other religions. We shall look, for example, at various Christian laws dealing with what was perceived as Jewish mockery of Christian ritual and sacred objects: from mock crucifixions allegedly practiced by Jews as part of Purim celebrations in the fifth-century Roman Empire to Jews who supposedly derided the Eucharist during thirteenth-century Corpus Christi processions. We shall in parallel examine prohibitions in Muslim legal texts (including the so-called Pact of ?‘Umar) of dhimmīs insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Qur'an. This comparison will show that, while blasphemy was illegal and could be harshly sanctioned and there were lines that religious minorities must not cross, these lines were often not clearly delimited, and became the object of conflict and negotiation.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Creator , Creation and Faith , by Norman Young The Precarious Organization : Sociological Explorations of the Church's Mission and Structure , by Mady A. Thung . Christian Meditation : Its Art And Practice , by H. Wayne Pipkin . Mysticism : Window on a World View , by Margaret Lewis Furse . A Reader's Guide to the Great Religions (second edition), by Charles J. Adams (ed.). Dialogue in Community : Statement and Reports of a Theological Consultation , Chiang Mai , Thailand Faith in the Midst of Faiths : Reflections on Dialogue in Community by Stanley J. Samartha (ed.). Inside Out : A Style for Dialogue (Risk , Vol. 13, No. 3, 1977). Bibliografi Ilmu Agama dan Theologia Kristen Dalam Bahasa Indonesia , Jilid 1, 2. Bibliography of the Scientific Study of Religions and Christian Theology in the Indonesian Language , Volumes 1, 2 by J. A. B. Jongeneel .     

Liberation,Salvation, Enlightenment: An Exercise in Comparative Soteriology

Abstract : This article is an exercise in what might be called “comparative soteriology.” It is both constructive and essential for Christians to examine non‐Christian expressions of soteriology that challenge their own, in order to see with new eyes what salvation can and perhaps should connotate. Thus, this article intends to lead the reader to a deeper appreciation of the Christian doctrine of salvation through the exploration of three different images of salvation: from Hinduism, the Nataraja—the Dancing Shiva; from Buddhism, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara; and from Christianity, an icon of the crucifixion, the San Damiano Crucifix.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Justice in an Unjust World: Foundations for a Christian Approach to Justice, by Karen Lebacqz. Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century, eds Bernard McGinn, John Meyendorff and Jean Leclercq. Common Ground: Christianity, African Religions and Philosophy (American University Studies Series VII Theology and Religion, Vol. 25), by Emmanuel K. Twesigye. Quest for Belonging: Introduction to a Study of African Independent Churches, by Inus Daneel. African Church Historiography: an Ecumenical Perspective, edited by Ogbu U. Kalu. Die Rückkehr zur Weisheit. Philosophie angesichts des Abgrunds, by Milan Machovec.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: R.J. Berry, God's Book of Works: The Nature and Theology of Nature Theodore G. Stylianopoulos, The Way of Christ: Gospel, Spiritual Life and Renewal in Orthodoxy John Binns, An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches Hans‐Martin Barth, Dogmatics: The Protestant Faith in the Context of World Religions: A Textbook     

On Atheism,Pluralism and Science: A Response to Ted Peters

Abstract : In dialogue with Ted Peters this article argues that atheists can and do respect other religions; that the term “respect” itself is a slippery word that requires careful delineation; that what we call religious pluralism (“parity model”) is a form of religious relativism; and that much of the doctrine of the Trinity is not symbolic language but conceptual. These points are meant to forward the truth‐claims of Christian confession in a pluralistic world.     

Religious Experience,Religious Worldviews,and Near-Death Studies

The tense relation prevailing between representatives of conservative religion and other near-death researchers may be illumined by a look at the different functions religion has fulfilled in the past. Religion may be seen as centering on the meaningfulness of the world, on spiritual experience, or on salvation. In this essay, I sketch the place of these themes in the Great Religions. These themes have inherent mutual tensions that in the case of Christianity cannot necessarily be settled by appeal to the Bible, because different Christian groups have somewhat differing views of the source of authority. Furthermore, the Bible's authority is challenged by the results of modern scholarship. In light of these reflections, I see Michael Sabom's Light & Death (1998) as showing valuable data and insights but failing to respond to significant challenges.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity , Gerd Lüdemann Spitting at Dragons: Towards a Feminist Theology of Sainthood , Elizabeth Stuart Hermeneutics as Theological Prolegomena: A Canonical Approach , Charles J. Scalise Gnostic Truth and Christian Heresy: A Study in the History of Gnosticism , Alastair H. B. Logan, T. & T. Clark Judas - Betrayer or Friend of Jesus? , William Klassen Celibacy: A Way of Loving, Living and Senving , A. W. Richard Sipe, Gill & Macmillan Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism , Grace Jantzen Postmodem Theologies: The Challenge of Religious Diversity , Terence W. Tilley (ed.) On Naming the Present: cod, Hermeneutics and Church , David Tracy The Character of Our Communities: Toward an Ethic of Liberation for the Church , Gloria Albrecht The Future of Anglicanism - Essays on Faith and Order , Robert Hannaford (ed.) Our Lady: The Mother of Jesus in Christian Faith and Devotion , Norman Pittenger The Cross on the Sword Catholic Chaplains in the Forces , Tom Johnstone and James Hagerty, Geoffrey Chapman In Search of the Sacred: Anthropology and the Study of Religions , Clinton Bennett Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainty , Elaine Graham Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults , Steve Bruce Global Gods: Exploring the Roles of Religions in Modem Societies , David W. Shenk     

Japanese religion as ritual order

It is argued in this paper that beneath the superficial analysis of Japanese ‘religions’ such as Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism and the New Religions, there is one dominant ideological complex which, following some Japanese scholars, can conveniently be dubbed ‘The Japanese Religion’ or Nihonkyo. This Japanese religion is a ritual order based on the hierarchical concept of ‘ie’ and its variations such as ‘kigyoushugi‘¹ at the level of the company and ‘katei‘² at the domestic level. This ritual order pervades all major institutions in Japan and the main mechanism for its reproduction is the school system. In analysing the latter a distinction between training and education is adopted, and it is argued that the concept of liberal education, which is based on the concept of the autonomous rational and moral individual, is essentially missing from the Japanese school system which is better described as a system of training. It is suggested further that training can be linked conceptually with ritual: training is a form of ritualized behaviour though with a heavily pragmatic content. It is hoped that the approach to Japanese religion which is argued here will prove more fruitful in the Religious Studies context than one which begins with an explicit or implicit concept of religion centred on beliefs about salvation, the supernatural and life after death.     

Revisiting the Antecedents of Interreligious Dialogue

This article looks critically at the trend to connect contemporary interreligious dialogue with certain events and developments that took place in Europe and India during the 19th and early 20th centuries: (i) the comparative study of religion, (ii) the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, (iii) three World Missionary Conferences in the first half of the 20th century, (iv) renascent Hinduism in India, and (v) Indian Christian efforts for inculturation. These events/developments are often perceived as the formative factors of dialogue. But this essay argues that they had their own complexities, agendas, and targets and rarely had interreligious dialogue as their objective or focus. Uncritical reading of the history of interreligious dialogue ignores how colonialism and imperialism have shaped these “antecedents.”     

The First Asian Ecumenical Confession of Faith: The So‐Called Twelve Articles of Faith of Many Asian Protestant Churches

The Twelve Articles of Faith, written by Western Presbyterian and Reformed missionaries in India around 1900, have arguably been the most important ecumenical confession of faith of many Asian Protestant churches (Indian, Korean and Chinese Protestant churches and beyond). The articles by and large adopt the spirit and content of the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, and have some apparently Calvinistic elements. But they also have some new Arminian, universalistic and ecumenical elements that include the unique historical and theological implications of the epochal Western missions in Asia of the 19th and the early 20th centuries: both Christ's atonement for all people and a non‐predestinarian order of salvation. These elements, however, seem to entail a weak, individualistic ecclesiology along with a Biblicist or fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. Nonetheless, having influenced millions of Asian Christians, the articles have been and continue to be an important ecumenical confession of faith, and in this way can contribute to uniting Asian‐and world‐Christian churches.     

Theology is not Mere Sociology: A Theological Reflection on the Reception of the Christian Religion in Mainland China

Abstract :  Post‐Maoist China retains its loyalty to Marxist principles; yet voices are being heard that interpret religion much more positively. Both government spokespersons and Religious Studies scholars measure the value of religion according to its social function. Such a criterion of evaluation fails to take account of what is essential to Christian theology, namely, appeal to divine transcendence. Yet, Christian theology in the tradition of the Lutheran Reformation begins with transcendence and turns toward human responsibility for the world through loving the neighbor. This may mark a common cause between Chinese sociology of religion and Christian commitments to social well‐being.