Editorial

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy

School of Theology

Christianity's Relationship to Other Religions

Australian 2009 is shaping up to be a notable year in terms of dialogue among the religious traditions having begun with Brisbane's successful Interfaith Summit for Peace and Harmony in the Asia-Pacific - "One Humanity, Many Faiths" - and culminating in the December meeting of the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne. This latter event promises to be the largest and most significant gathering of multi-religious traditions in Australian history.

This provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the changing attitude of Christians to people of other religious traditions across the ages. In some ways, this is a story all Christians need to know if they are to make most of the current call to dialogue among the religions. We can learn both from positive insights of the past as well as historical mistakes.

Historically, Christianity began as a minority Jewish sect. The first Christians did not see themselves as a new religion but faithful Jews for whom Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah. The split with Judaism coincided with the decision to spread the Christian gospel ‘beyond Israel'. Then Christians found themselves confronted by Greek, Roman and other Mediterranean peoples espousing diverse religious systems. How did they react?

Early Christian apologists believed they had a superior message, but they did not assume a universally negative view of other traditions. Writers like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria recognized the presence of the Word, Wisdom and Spirit of God in creation, the prophets, wisdom-writers, and ‘among the nations'. We also recall the apostle Paul praising the religious spirit of the people of Athens.

In these early centuries, Christians were a marginal group within the Greco-Roman Empire. They were considered the ‘pagans' of the day for refusing to worship Roman gods and emperors. They were often persecuted, even martyred, for their beliefs. Consequently, they were on the defensive.

All this changed in the fourth century when the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state-sanctioned religion. Christian conversion was no longer just a religious act, but a social and political one as well. Equally, it implied a more negative, at times militant, attitude to other religions. This was especially evident after the eighth century clash with Islam and in the increasing denigration of Judaism.

Nonetheless, in medieval Europe, Christian hostility to other religions was not universal. One thinks of Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhard and Francis of Assisi who engaged in positive dialogue with Muslims and Jews. Nicholas of Cusa espoused what he called a harmony or concordance of religions. One also thinks of medieval southern Spain where the three Abrahamic traditions peacefully co-existed for several centuries.

Following Columbus and the colonization of the ‘new world', Christianity saw itself as the world's civilizing power. Non-European cultures and religions were considered exotic, inferior and temporary. The Christian attitude toward them was, at best, patronizing.

Events of the twentieth century-two world wars, a billion deaths and post-colonial independence movements-challenged European imperialism and the Christian claim to superiority. Religious traditions of the East and Indigenous traditions of the South grew in authority and confidence. Christians were forced to reassess their own identity and attitude to other religions in relation to a radically changing world.

Today, the dominant Christian voice is no longer European, but Asian, African and Latin American. Like other religions, Christianity is confronted by internal divisions and the rise of fundamentalist movements. The real question is no longer what is the Christian attitude to other religions, but who speaks for Christianity in the context of religious pluralism?

Here we are guided by official voices of major Christian churches including  Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism and other Reform traditions represented in the World Council of Churches. Differences notwithstanding, this majority Christian perspective is committed to ‘dialogue' among peoples and religions of the world to overcome divisions and prejudice, foster mutual understanding and work together for reconciliation, peace and harmony.

These Christian proponents of dialogue reject an approach that limits grace and salvation to the Christian religion-even if this is not worked out theologically. Agreeing that other religions are also carriers of truth and goodness does not thereby assume the sameness or equality of religions. Christians (like others) still affirm the priority of their own tradition while recognising each religion has its own spiritual insights and vision to share.

Religious dialogue does not occur in a vacuum. There is little hope of genuine dialogue without acknowledging past guilt. Christian leaders have expressly asked forgiveness from Jews, Muslims and Indigenous peoples for past injustices. World religious leaders twice met in Assisi at the invitation of Pope John Paul II to pray for world peace. There are many more initiatives at grass-roots levels to demonstrate that interreligious understanding is possible because it is already happening.

Among the fruits of Christian dialogue with Muslims and Jews is growing awareness that all are followers of Abraham and believers in the one, same God. From the classical religions of the East, Christians may learn meditation practices, moral precepts and spiritual truths to enhance our human experience of the divine mystery. From Indigenous traditions, Christians are introduced to a heightened sense of the sacredness of creation.

Christians still believe they have a mission to proclaim the Gospel. However, with renewed humility, they are learning that mission includes other essential aspects such as presence, witness, social justice, liberation, reconciliation, prayer and contemplation. Equally, mission involves the practice and spirituality of dialogue. Dialogue itself takes many forms including dialogue of the head, the heart, hands, life, music and play.

To paraphrase interreligious scholar Raimon Panikkar, Christians are discovering they are not alone and so open up to dialogue to find ways in which a generous God is present throughout creation and in the spiritual traditions of humankind. Nothing short of a new religious consciousness beckons where we define our Christian identity in relationship with -not opposition to- other traditions.

It is not too much to suggest that the start of the third millennium marks the beginning of a new spiral of interaction between Christians and other religions of the world.

Gerard Hall SM

17^th March, 2009, Feast of St Patrick

This editorial makes significant use of the author's prior text on "Christianity and Other Relgions" prepared for Christendom: The Illustrated Guide to 2000 Years of the Christian Faith, a book on the history of Christianity to be published by Millennium House, Sydney, Australia, in 2009. Details: http://www.millenniumhouse.com.au/