Theology of Religions Mandems

Inclusivism Pluralism Exclusivism What is religion?

What Examiners have asked on 2010-2016

Question 1 Question 2

January 2010 Barth What is Religion

June 2010 Hick and Cupitt Rahner

January 2011 Hick Rahner

June 2011 Barth What Is Religion

January 2012 Cupitt Rahner

June 2012 Smart Hick

January 2013 Feuerbach Hick

June 2013 Barth and Cupitt Rahner

June 2014 Barth What is religion?

June 2015 Rahner and what is religion

Hick

Theological Inclusivism Key Points

1. Theological Inclusivism believes in core doctrines or teachings of Christianity. God acts through Jesus (who is the normative means of salvation) but is inclusive of other faiths. How can a God of love could condemn other faiths? Religious experience is possible outside Christianity. God's love, grace or mercy includes all who seek God’s grace and God’s saving grace applies to all religions. Examples of Inclusivist thinking are the Church of England report “The Mystery of Salvation” and the Catholic teaching (in 2000) of Dominus Iesus which says religions may contain ‘rays’ of truth

2. Inclusivist Bible passages? Parable of Good Samaritan (Luke 10) shows how Christianity includes all. The Samaritans were a mixed race in Jesus’ society and suffered bullying.In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus encourages people to help those on the outside of society and says God will separate those who do from those who do not, like a farmer separates sheep from goats (Matthew 25). St. Paul in Acts 17 said the Greeks worship their gods in their way. Jesus’ example depict an inclusive God of love not one who elects through predestination a few into the Kingdom.

3. Karl Rahner is the key Inclusivist thinker. His 23 volume book was called “Theological Investigations”. He influenced Vatican II which was a great meeting / council of Catholic Church in the 1960s. He said all human beings were created with the capacity to orientate to God. (called Transcendental anthropology). So humans are naturally open to God’s grace and history shows humans search for this. Rahner called his theology Open Catholicism because it is open to what Rahner called “the pluralism of powers” in the world. Rahner advocated 4 theses or propositions/arguments:

4. Solus Christus: Christianity is “the absolute religion.” There is no other religion equal to it. God is mediated through Christ. Christianity is the explicit expression of selfless love.

5. Other faiths are lawful. A culture may have lived before Christ or not known about Christ. The Incarnation (God becoming human in Jesus) is universal and is a development in, not a division of, history. God loves all unconditionally and grace is seen in design (design argument?), conscience, history (including the history of Israel) , morality, beauty and culture. Thus, Salvation occurs before Christ event. As Grace was accessible historically before the advent of Christ, then it follows that this is still true for cultures

which are not Christian today. The Old Testament King Cyrus is regarded by Isaiah in as a messiah.

6. . An Anonymous Christian is anyone of good will desires God's grace. For example, Rahner says, a Buddhist monk. Salvation is still through Christ. An example of this is St Paul’s teaching in Acts 17 that the Greeks worship God in their way. God’s grace is a gift.

7. The anonymous Church is where salvation is mediated for anonymous Christians. The Church itself is a means of grace but different religions participate anonymously, The Church is the Mystical body of Christ. The Church is not an ‘exclusive community’. Only at the end of time will God’s grace be revealed. This allows Rahner to preserve the Catholic teaching of “no salvation outside the Church” (extra ecclesiam nulla salus). The Church is an expression of what Christianity mans.

8. Negatives: Undermines Christianity and the uniqueness of Jesus. Offensive to other faiths. Imperialist meaning imposes views on others. What if Christ is not the Son of God? Is a Muslim ummah actually a Church? Christianity is predicated on the uniqueness of the Christ-event and so this makes Jesus invisible. A conscious affirmation of Christ is required. All humans are not open to God. What if the anonymous Christian rejects Christianity?

9. Positives: Gives Christianity life. Recognises the special features of Christian theology whilst valuing those of different faiths (or none) who live their lives through good will and in response to the divine. Greater priority to Grace than to Christ/Special Revelation. Christian. Not about an explicit belief in a historical moment but rather to a broader existential commitment (knowingly or otherwise) to God’s grace.

Past Paper Analysis

‘Karl Rahner’s teaching on Grace offers the best solution to the relationship of Christianity and other religions.’ (Explain Inclusivism and Rahner’s views/ Define best solution/Define relationship of Christianity to other religions/ Strengths/Weaknesses/ Exclusivism and Pluralism better/ Your views).

Evaluate Karl Rahner’s teaching on the relationship between history and non-Christian religions.(Explain Inclusivism and Rahner’s views/ Define evaluate/ Strengths generally but refer back to question/ Weaknesses generally but refer back to the question/ Bring in pluralism and exclusivism to criticise/Your views)

The Christian Inclusivist approach to religions is fundamentally flawed. Discuss. (Explain Rahner’s views/ Define fundamentally flawed/ Agree with question – weaknesses/ Agree with question – use pluralism and exclusivism/ Disagree with question – strengths/ Conclusion).

Assess the view that Karl’s Rahner’s teaching on anonymous Christianity undermines the authority of the Church. (Explain Inclusivism and Rahner / Weaknesses generally referencing the question/ Bring in Barth and Exclusivism to criticise/ Strengths generally referencing question/ Your views.

Assess Karl Rahner’s teaching on the Church and anonymous Christianity. (Explain Rahner and Inclusivism/ Positives/ Negatives/ Use Exclusivism and Pluralism to criticise/Your views)

Theological Pluralism: Key Points

1. What is theological pluralism? This theory is shown by the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant - each of the men are touching a different part of the elephant though they do not know it. Truth depends on perspective. . Pluralism believes all religions are partially correct or true. All participate in a larger truth. Gandhi said religions climb the same mountain but in different ways. There are qual paths to salvation.

2. Britain has always been a multicultural country but because of modern communications and migration, different religions became aware of each other.

3. John Hick: In his early life he was a traditional Christian but when moved to Birmingham in 1967 and saw people of diverse faiths leading good lives and became uncomfortable with the idea of no salvation outside Christianity. He saw that people from other faiths led good lives. He did not believe the God of love could condemn such people. He believed experience was more important than revelation. He said all religions were phenounenal (the thing as we experience it) expressions of a noumenal (the thing in itself) reality (he was influenced by Kant here). All religions are the attempts by humans to grasp the ungraspable noumenal world. Each religion just sees part of the picture. Each religion formulated doctrines or teachings expressing this in their historical context. Hick calls God “The Real” or “Eternal One.” Each religion varies according to culture. The test of true religion is whether it lead to good fruits from self-centred ego to reality-centred peace, joy and compassion. Salvation is when people encounter The Real. Religions express the sense of The Real through myth and metaphor which has to be demythologised in order to recover the original existential experience. Religious Language is ambiguous. Hick advocated a Copernican Revolution in Theology. Copernicus said the earth /planets centred the sun. Hick believed God not Christ (theocentric not Christocentric) was the key for we needed to demythologise (as Bultman said) the Bible as Jesus was not Son of God but just God conscious (like Gandhi). Hick believes early Christians did not believe Jesus was God but an expression of God’s Love only He advocated Global theology where all religions work together. Hick does not mean that there should be one super-religion but that there should be a shared aim amongst the theologians and philosophers of the great world religions to understand that phenomenal differences are not a bar to a shared noumenal reality.

4. Strengths: A global theology respects religious diversity, gives value to religion as the means of living a reality-centred life rather than a self-centred existence and enjoys the cultural expressions between different faiths and traditions. Global Theology brings people together. Global Theology respects diversity. Gives value to religions.

5. Weaknesses: Undermines the integrity of religions. It certainly dismisses the central aspects of Christianity as subjective myths when they actually convey objective truths. Assumes that Buddhists, have a notion of the Real when they do not. Post-modernists reject objective God Hick allows some things to be part of his system but not others. Religions are not the same. Use your knowledge of Islam to point out significant differences. Are atheists part of Hick's system?

Past Paper Analysis

1. ‘Post-modernism does not support theological pluralism.’ Discuss. (Explain Post Modernism. Explain Cupitt. Explain Pluralism. Explain Hick. No it does not – Hick is a modernist and assumes objective God. Only relative in the sense that each religion only as partial but not exclusive claim to truth. Weaknesses of pluralism. Yes it can. Cupitt’s solar theology sees value in all religions. Strengths of pluralism. Your views).

2. Assess the view that John Hick’s global theology is doomed to failure. (Explain Hick and Pluralism. Define doom to failure. Weaknesses referring to question. Bring in inclusivism (Rahner) and exclusivism (Barth) to criticise. Strengths referring to question. Your views)

3. John Hick’s demythologised Christianity is the only way the claims of Christianity and other religions may be reconciled. Discuss. (Explain Pluralism. Explain Hick. Define only way claims of Christianity and other religions reconciled. Agree with question (strengths). Disagree with question (weaknesses). Bring in inclusivism (Rahner) and exclusivism (Barth) to criticise. Your views),.

4. Religious experience suggests that all religions have equal access to salvation. Discuss (Define Pluralism. Define Hick. Define religious experience. Agree with question – strengths of pluralism and Hick. Disagree with question – weaknesses of Pluralism. Bring in Exclusivism (Barth) and Inclusivism (Rahner) to criticise. Perhaps briefly criticise religious experience in general. Your views).

Theological Exclusivism

1. Exclusivism is also called particularism. Certain truth claims exclusive to Christianity.

2. Universalists believe at the end of time God will include all humans into the kingdom because as a God of love he does not exclude any of his creation. Saint Paul in Romans 8 states the whole creation groaning for salvation.

3. Exclusivists argue that only those who profess a belief in Christ and sincerely believe in God’s redemption in the atonement (Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross) can be saved. Truth claims are exclusive to Christianity. Salvation through Christ only - souls Christus (By Christ Alone).In the Bible, in Acts 4, “there is no salvation in anyone else.” Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14) Martin Luther stated God saves us through faith in Jesus (a belief called justification by faith). Just after Luther, John Calvin stated God only known through Jesus.

4. Karl Barth: His theology was liberal (making compromises the world) but when 93 German intellectuals (including many Christians) approved of WW1, Barth felt Christianity had "sold out" to the surrounding culture and decided to become more traditional with his commentary on the Bible book of Romans. Barth found the theme of the Bible was the goodness of God. Revelation not experience was the key to knowing God. Barth considered that human institutions, including the Church, had justified their positions based on worldly reasoning and not on the Word of God. His book Church Dogmatics was 12 volumes. “The Revelation of God As The Abolition Of Religion" was the key chapter where Barth condemns religion as mankind's attempt to know God. He called religion unbelief. For him, the only way to reach God is through God via Jesus. This is different from religion. Religion is people’s attempt to grasp God however Christianity is, by contrast, about God reaching down through Jesus. The Fall, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, so removed humans from any knowledge of God that all attempts to grasp the divine are bound to reflect human wishes not God anyway and so prove Feuerbach correct in a way. Knowledge of God is entirely God-given special revelation when God as Word makes himself known in the Incarnation and as Trinity. The Trinity of God, God, Jesus and Holy Spirit he called Revealer, Revelation and Revealedness. God is known through he person of Christ. Christianity is unique because of the Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Christ is the proof of the revelation. The Word of God is preached, written and revealed. The Word of

God is preached. The Church proclaims and preaches the word and the Holy Spirit opens up people’s hearts. The Bible or written word recollects the revelation and has concrete authority. It represents God’s Word. God speaks through the Bible through the Holy Spirit. The Bible is not the revelation or word but a witness to the word. Revelation is act and scripture record. Word became flesh. Through God alone may God be known. God elects people for roles in the Bible. Jesus is subject and object of election Jesus is the concrete revelation revelation of God in a moment for all humans and history holy spirit. Theology should reflect on God’s self revelation. Barth rejected that God could be known without Christ through nature in (Natural Theology) in a famous theological debate with Emil Brummer. But later in his life was broader - God could speak through a flute concerto, Russian communism or a dead dog. also veered forwards Inclusivism in calling other religions lesser lights which could be parables of the kingdom. Some see Barth as universalist (God will include at the end of time).

5. Strengths: Gives back God and Christianity’s unique existence. His position reinstates the distinctiveness of theology which is neither religious studies nor philosophy but concerned with the nature of God as he reveals himself to humans. True to Christianity and other faiths.

6. Weaknesses: Evidence for Jesus, The Fall and Bible? Use pluralism and inclusivism to criticise. Is everyone really going to be saved by God? Use philosophy / atheist arguments to criticise God, Bible and Jesus.

Past Paper Analysis

1. Assess the view that Karl Barth is a universalist not an exclusivist. (Explain Exclusivism and Barth. Explain universalism. Define assess. Contrast briefly with Hick and Rahner. No he was not…early ideas. Yes he was…how his views changed. Your views)

2. Assess the view that Barth was right in his rejection of natural theology. (Explain Exclusivism. Explain Barth. Explain Natural Theology. Define rejection. Why he was right – strengths of Barth generally and relate them back. Why he was not right – weaknesses of Barth and relate them back. Actually, later in his career he was more open – explain Your views).

What is Religion: Key Points

1. You are expected to know these key historical epochs. Pre-modern refers to the period before the birth of science which was characterised by belief in God. Modernism: The modern period is characterised by confidence in human reason, belief in objective truth and a gradual rejection of God. Hume is a modernist. So was Kant and Descartes. It began in The Enlightenment period. There was a supreme confidence in human ability, it is humanocentric, has a belief in grand narratives and belief in truth. Finally, Post-modernism is the age we are in now but some disagree with this idea. It began after Nietzsche. This mixes pre-modern and modern. Truth is merely subjective or relative. There is no right or wrong. There is a pick and mix approach to religion and other things. There is no outside world beyond this one and no grand narratives or objective values. It is diverse and tolerance is a key virtue.

2. You are expected to know that religion is studied in the following ways. An Objective approach to religion means it is studied from the outside as a non-practioner of religions by atheists, psychologists, sociologists, amongst others. This could be your approach. Modernists study religion from the outside. A Subjective approach to religion looks at religion from the inside as a believer. This is the focus of theology.

3. Essentialists argue there is something called religion or true religion. Existentialists consider religion to be a subjective human response to the world. The essentialist tries to identify key elements of religion whereas the existentialist are concerned with the experience of the follower of religion.

4. Ludwig Feuerbach was a modernist and essentialist. He was able to explain what all religions are (essentialist). His key book was his 1841 work “The Elements of Christianity.” He was suspicious of religion because there was no rational basis for it he believed. He proposed, before Freud, that God did not exist in reality but only as a human projection. Religion objectifies what is just wishful thinking. God is an illusion and instead of linking principles of love to that, Christian should just do good things. Religion is an unhealthy delusion. It alienates believers from their community and their freedom. Our wants justice and reward and projects these into creating God. Religion is really just people looking in a mirror or, as Feuerbach put it, “self feeling feeling.” Feuerbach wanted to return humans to their natural state by developing secular religion which encourages human love without

God. Believers make themselves an object of the object of a god their mind projects. God becomes a symbol of our desires not an objective being. Feuerbach advocates a kind of religious humanism (if that is not a contradiction). Humans should be in community with each other free of ideology and prejudice. He is an essentialist in terms of defining religions and reductionist in the sense that he gets science to explain religion. He influenced Marx’s views on religion. God is mere wish fulfilment for him..

5. Ninian Smart is a modernist. He is a pioneer of the way Religious Studies is taught today as an academic non-faith based discipline which looks at the phenomenon of religious belief (phenomenological approach . He identified 6 dimensions of religion: 1. 1. Ritual – buildings, worship, prayers, offerings, festivals, ceremonies. 2. Stories 3. Philosophical (doctrines/creeds) 4. Social (organisation of religion) 5. Ethical (Codes of morality) 6. Experiential (experience of God). He wanted to investigate religion scientifically with no judgement. He thinks there is an objective experience called ‘religion’. Revelation is non-propositional. Smart is a pluralist seeing religion as a plural phenomenon but all are concerned with the search for the ‘invisible’ dimension of human experience. This then leads to teachings being formed. Smart’s starting point is not whether religion is true or false but to describe its essential characteristics as a significant aspect of human experience, or what he calls the ‘invisible world’. He makes an analogy with a painting in which a single colour can appear in several paintings but in such different contexts and settings that it appears quite different. He believes that religions should be judged and analysed on their own terms and not by comparison with each other. In other words, Smart establishes the discipline of religious studies. He wants to investigate religion scientifically without judgement. Revelation is merely experience. He sees Marxism and Humanism as somewhat religious. Each religion is unique and should not be judged against each other.

6. Don Cupitt is a post-modernist thinker living in Cambridge. He is a Non-realist thinker. This means there is no reality beyond the one we experience and perceive. God is merely dependent on the mind. Cupitt believes God is a metaphor God is an idea in people’s minds. This frees religion up. There is no truth only what we create. There is no world outside our language. . A metaphor for people's dreams and purpose, God does not objectively exist for Cupitt. He believes science has proved there is only one world. He became known as an atheist priest because he re-defined God as

a metaphor for purpose. He advocated solar living or solar ethics or solar theology - life is a drama / story and we should burn brightly then burn out. This is inclusive, non-judgemental and life affirming. It encourages generous love. Religion is a human response to the world . Cupitt describes himself as a Christian Buddhist. Buddhism does not believe in a soul or God beyond this one. Life after death and salvation eally about trying to change so one has a different quality of life here and now. Religious symbols acquire new meaning when released from the existence of God. Cupitt reinvigorates religion allowing it a place in the world of science and freeing symbols from God. This allows non believers to appreciate religious places when travelling. It places humans in the world and not on some fanciful journey outside. Others might think it undermines religion was dispensing with God.

Past Paper Analysis

1. Religion cannot be defined. Discuss. (Explain Feuerbach, Smart and Cupitt. Agree with question – religion just human expression – cannot categorise- there is what Smart called an invisible dimension. Your views.

2. Religion has no future in our modernist age. Discuss. (Define religion using Feuerbach, Smart and Cupitt. Define Modernism. No it does not have a future - Modernism will eventually bring religion to an end. Feuerbach’s views and rise of science and technology. The rise of atheism. Religion lacks any sound rational basis it has no part in the academic curriculum and so it will and must die out as a subject. Yes it does - Smart – religions are a source of meaning, purpose and order which challenge the very reductive end of modernism to make humans less ego-centric and more aware of their place in the cosmos in relation to the. Views of Barth Religion will not die out because it is deeply embedded within the human psyche. Your views.

3. Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of Don Cupitt’s approach to religion. (Explain Cupitt. Strengths. Weaknesses. Use Barth, Hick, Rahner, Smart and Feuerbach to criticise too. Your views)

4. Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of Ninian Smart’s approach to religion. (Explain Smart. Define critically assess. Strengths. Weaknesses. Use Cupitt, Feuerbach, Barth and Rahner briefly. Your view)

5. Assess the view that the weaknesses of Feuerbach’s idea of religion was that he failed to understand revelation (Explain Feuerbach. Candidates might suggest that Feuerbach’s entire analysis of religion begins and ends with human experience. Define revelation. Strengths of Feuerbach. But weaknesses. Explain Barth. Barth sees revelation is not a human experience but an action of God which is wholly different. Your view).

6. To what extent are Christianity and post-modernism compatible? (Explain Cupitt. Define post modernism, modernism and pre-modernism. See Barth and Rahner as representative of Christianity. Arguments for / against Cupitt / post modernism being Christian. Your views)

.