 http://rec.gospelcom.net/TF-May96-vroom.html
REC Home*** REC Publications
Theological Forum
Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1 & 2, May 1996
Our Attitude Toward Non-Christian Religions
(The following papers are a response to the question posed by the editor)
On Dialogue and Witness: Some Short Remarks
Henk Vroom
Critical dialogue
1. Dialogue does not involve an exchange of ideas while avoiding critical questions. Rather, dialogue concerns truth and includes analyses, questions, answers, objections and judgments. A critical dialogue consists of four things: 1) examination of that which others actually believe; 2) the articulation of one's own belief; 3) readiness to learn from one another: this concerns those aspects of the critique that are true and continue to obtain; 4) open discussion on mutual criticism with respect to the conceptions and practices of belief.1
Coming to conclusions in dialogue
2. Because we are called to regard others better than ourselves, we can not suppose the truth of our belief without carefully listening to our neighbors of other religious traditions. We will notice that God has not left himself without a witness in doing good to all peoples in the world, and that through the ages many have known his divinity and power, and some have been called priest of God Most High (as Melchizedek). Many have been and are devout people "who feared God" with all their household. Thankfully we may notice that. Therefore we shall not judge about the faith of other people without careful listening.
3. Because not all world views and religious beliefs are "the same," they may contradict each other, but also could amplify or show other important perspectives, or might overlap and share some basic insights. Through the ages the church has learned a lot from other religious and philosophical traditions, both for better and for worse. Therefore, Christian freedom means that we may investigate all things and hold all things good and true.
4. In a sense every religious tradition is unique: each has its own development, its own basic insights and its own view of the world, of human beings and of the divine. The Buddha is unique, Mohammed is unique, Moses is unique, and Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama and a great many wise and good women and men unknown to us also. For all things good and beautiful we honor the people and praise God (for what has been called "common grace"). With our missiologist Johan Bavinck we may say: "God concerns Himself with every man. Buddha would not have meditated on the way of salvation if God had not touched him. Mohammed would never have uttered his prophetic witness if God had not concerned Himself with him. Every religion contains the silent work of God."2
5. That all traditions contain the silent work of God does not imply that their insights are the full truth, although we may meet with depth and partial truths, just as we ourselves see through a mirror, dimly.
What is unique?
6. The church, with her knowledge of the Gospel, has such a responsibility in proclaiming the Gospel and living according to the will of God, that we should be careful and moderate in our judgments about the worth and truthfulness of other beliefs and philosophies. The church itself is such an ambiguous phenomenon, fragile and split in many parts, that we reject any idea of the "absoluteness of Christianity."
7. As all religious traditions have their unicity, also the christian church has a unique history to tell: God's salvific involvement with humankind, which he has shown clearly in his bond with Israel and especially in Jesus Christ: his wisdom, healing power, trust in God, preaching, love, resistance and uprightness, his death and resurrection. Thus we may believe: God is with us.
8. God's salvation may reach much more widely than we would send it, if we would have to administer itwhich he wisely and happily has not given us as a task. Our task is to live a Christian life and proclaim the Gospel.
Other faith traditions
9. God is not far from any of us: all human beings live before the face of God. We should listen to their witness about their beliefs, their hopes and despair. And we should give witness about the Gospel of Christ to all those who do not know itas the church order of the Reformed Churches in The Netherlands says.
10. Christians do not claim to know all truths and everything, but only a unique revelation of God's love and reconciliation, which by consequence they feel to be important for every human being. But because we do not "possess the truth" and "know it all," we may listen to the insights that people in other religious and philosophical traditions have gainedand we do learn a lot from them. Because their insights also are unique, we should not stop dialogue before it has begun, and we should be conscious that we may learn a lot, that their obedience to the divineas they have known itcan be deeper than ours although we know the Gospel, that their trust in God may be an example to us. We do not `have' the truth, but are witnesses of the Kingdom to Come, which has been annouced in Christ. The truth makes us free to engage in dialogue with all who are willing to tell and to hear.
End Notes:
1
See my No Other Gods: Christian Belief in Dialogue with Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam (transl. Lucy Jansen). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996, p. 5 for a fuller exposition of these four points.
2
Johan H. Bavinck, The Church Between the Temple and Mosque, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966, p. 200.
REC Home*** REC Publications
|
  |
| LAST UPDATE: 2006.04.09 - 20:21 |
210.101.104.227 - Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; V-TV Browser7.0.0.0 (Build 700); SV1)
|
이름검색
메일보내기
계시와성경
종교와 테러리즘 강의안
체크된 항목 삭제
체크된 항목 이동
체크된 항목 복사
