Towards a theology of religious pluralism
Introduction
Jacques Dupuis, Belgian Catholic theologian, at a time of his work towards a Christian theology of religious pluralism, published in New York, in 1997, affirms that the religious traditions of humanity are derived from the religious experience of people or groupsthat have founded them. His sacred books contain the memory of concrete religious experiences with the truth. His practices, in turn, are the result of the coding of these experiences.
Thus it seems impracticable and theologically not realistic to maintain that, even when members of the various religious traditions can obtain salvation, their religion does not play any role in the process. Jacques Dupuis initiates the exhibition of his work’s arguments on the Christian theology of religious pluralism with a well -determined note. Together with the theology of liberation, this matter has become an element of primary interest within the western communities of the Church in attention to the meeting of cultures and religions as a fact “increasingly concrete in the nations of the developed world."
Developing.
It is now, from faith in Jesus Christ, and therefore as a fundamentally Christian approach, deployed in the theological perspective that had been expressed in previous works, of analyzing and assimilating, at the same time, in its difference, the experiences of traditionsliving religious, assigning them a positive role and meaning in the development of God’s plan for humanity in the history of salvation.
The methodology that rehearses in this work is due to the double procedure, as explained, at the same time deductive in which faith itself is not put in parentheses and inductive that entails an encounter with the other believer who takes place as much as possible,In the specific reality of his concrete religious experience, and to the praxis of dialogue, as he strives to explain in the third part of his introduction, hoping to reach the encounter between the Christian data, which comes from the word and of traditionof the Church, and reality as presented to the theologian or interpreter, a necessary basis for a correct theology of religions.
To what extent is it possible, as the dialogue demands, given that faith involves the adhesion of the whole person, entering the religious experience of another and making it their own? Taking another step on the text Jesus Christ to meet religions, here it intends to draw that path that leads precisely to the theology of religious pluralism, initiated diachronically in the first meetings of the followers of Jesus Christ with the other non -Christian traditions, which is responsibleto expose and develop.
The challenges of dialogue
Jacques Dupuis has shown that the conditions of possibility of inter -religious dialogue have held an important place in the debate on religions theology. To make this dialogue viable, Knitter defended the passage of the Cristo Centrico to the Theocentricoso. Despite the changes that claim to have introduced in its position in recent years. Knitter continues to believe that a "constitutive" and "inclusive" Christology does not leave space for a genuine dialogue.
Thus, the Christological problem is in the center of dialogue theology, as is at the center of religions theology. The dialogue is observed can only be sincere if it takes place in a plane of equality between the interlocutors. Then, the Church and the Christians can sincerely profess the will to enter into dialogue with others, if they are not prepared to revoke their traditional statements about Jesus as a "constitutive" Savior of Humanity? This issue implies the problem of religious identity in general and of the Christian identity in particular, together with that of the open to the others that the dialogue requires. But you have to distinguish several aspects.
The theological foundation of inter religious dialogue
To establish the foundation of the "Church’s relations with non -Christian religions", and especially of the inter religious dialogue, the Nostra Aetate declaration of the Second Vatican Council affirmed that all peoples form a community, have the same origin, since GodHe made all the human race on the face of the earth and also have the same ultimate goal, which is God, whose providence, manifestation of goodness and salvation designs extend to all until the chosen ones are joined in the holy city,which will be illuminated by the glow of God and in which the peoples will walk under their light.
In this way, the dialogue is established on a double foundation: the community, which has its origin in God through creation;and his destiny in him through salvation in Jesus Christ. Nothing is said about the presence and action of the Spirit of Operating God in all human beings and in all religious traditions.
A study of the Vatican II documents shows that the Council rediscovered only the action of the spirit progressively and that the fruits of such rediscovery are mainly in the Conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes. The conviction that the Spirit of God is universally present and active in the religious life of "others" and in the religious traditions to which they belong, as is present in the midst of that of Christians and in the Church, it isAlso a post -conciliar rediscovery, according to Jacques Dupuis.
From this point of view, the importance of such vision to establish the theological foundation of inter religious dialogue, cannot go unnoticed. This constitutes the third fundamental element. But such a vision has been imposed slowly. There is no indication of her in the teaching of Paul VI. To demonstrate it, it is enough to show that in the apostolic exhortation, which summarizes the work of the Synod of Bishops on the evangelization of the modern world, the spirit appears only by the fact that it stimulates the Church and makes it ideal to fulfill its evangelizing mission(number 75), which consists primary and mainly in the announcement of the Gospel.
Adhesion and openness
In the first place, under the pretext of the honesty of the dialogue, we must not even temporarily put in parentheses one’s faith (that is, one must not perform one), operating as it has been suggested to eventually rediscover the truth of that faith through that faith throughof the same dialogue. On the contrary, honesty and sincerity of dialogue specifically require that the interlocutors, establish it and commit to keep it in the integrity of their faith. Any methodical doubt and all mental reserve are here out of place.
If so, you could not talk about the inter religious dialogue or between the FES. After all, at the base of an authentic religious life there is a faith that gives it its specific character and peculiar identity. This religious faith is no more negotiable in the inter religious dialogue than in the personar life itself. It is not a merchandise that can be distributed or exchanged;This is a gift received from God, which cannot be arranged lightly. For the same reason, as well as the sincerity of dialog.
Conclusions.
Authentic dialogue does not admit such resources. It does not admit or "syncretism" that, in the search for common land, tries to overcome the opposition and contradiction between different religious traditions through some reduction in the content of faith;nor the eclecticism that, in the search for a common denominator between the various traditions, chooses scattered elements and combines them in an amalgam report and incoherent. To be true, dialogue cannot seek ease, which, in any case, is illusory.
Rather, without wanting to hide the contradictions between religious faith, they must recognize them where they exist, and face them patiently and in a responsible manner. Hiding differences and possible contradictions would be a fraud. In fact, it would actually end up depriving the dialogue of its object!. After all, the dialogue seeks understanding in the difference, in a sincere esteem due to different convictions of their own. In this way, it leads to each interlocutor to ask about the implications of the other’s personal convictions for faith itself .
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