Walking with God in a Pluralistic World
Until recently, the vision of western Christian mission was to Christianize the whole world. However, it doesn't seem to have become a reality.
People like Mahatma Gandhi heard the Christian Gospel, and were willing to put its teachings into practice, but were not willing to join the Christian Church. This opens up our eyes to the reality-- we are living in a world of multiple faiths.
The question we ask ourselves today is this: what does it mean to walk with God in a pluralistic world? Mainly three answers have been given.
1. All the other faiths are from Satan.
2. Jesus is the fulfillment of all other faiths.
3. We can learn a lot from them.
I think the third answer is more sensible and realistic. It involves a theological/spiritual humility. If we are willing to admit that our knowledge of God is limited, we will be willing to listen to the others. While blindly believing and trusting God, we should also be willing to realize the mystery of the unknown side of God.
It is possible to quote several verses from the Bible to prove that the third view is groundless. For example:
"Under the Sun, among the humans, there is no salvation anywhere except in the name of Jesus."
"Those who believe and be baptized will be saved.”
However, we should realize that Bible is too complex a book in that we can also find verses to support the third view. We see a God in the Bible who is more concerned with all the people in the world than with Israelites. God is the creator and provider to all the living beings in the world. There is only one God, though people call him with various names. God is a God of the nations. People of Israel called themselves the chosen people of God—chosen for the good of all mankind. They did not want to convert all people in the world to Judaism.
A few incidents and stories in the Bible are worth referring to.
1. The story of Jonah. Jonah receives a new revelation about God. He learns that God is not a private property of the Israelites, but that God cares for all humanity.
2. The story of Peter. Peter receives a similar revelation when he was invited to the home of Cornelius, the centurion. This incident is more about the conversion of Peter rather than about that of Cornelius. Peter also realizes that God is a God of all people in the world, not just of Israelites.
3. The story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman. Here we see Jesus disregarding the discriminations based on caste, faith, and gender. While the woman brought to his attention the difference between the Jews and the Samaritans by saying that they have different places of worship, Jesus asks her to rise to a higher level: Worship God in truth and spirit. The place and form of worship don't matter.
4. The story of the disciples of Jesus asking him about the people who were not in their group. The disciples of Jesus saw someone doing mighty works in the name of Jesus; however, they were not in their group. So the disciples didn't want to associate with him. Jesus admonishes them against this attitude.
I was born and brought up in Sri Lanka, where I lived with Buddhists and Hindus as my neighbors. The spirituality and the kind of life I saw in some of them have impressed me very much. I find it more appropriate on my part to be humble and be willing to learn from them rather than to condemn them for being brought up in a different religious tradition.
As I grew up, the theology of P. D. Devanandan and M. M. Thomas influenced me to a great extent. Both of them emphasized justice, peace, and human rights. M. M. Thomas even said: Salvation is humanization.
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