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Western Christianity’s interaction with world religions used to be, for the most part, overseas. Today, “religious others” often live next door. At a changing time when one public prayer spoken during the 2009 U.S. presidential inauguration festivities was addressed to “O god of our many understandings,” the evangelical Christian church should do more than simply dismiss non-Christian religions as pagan without argument or comment. The Church needs a theology of religions that is Christ-honoring, biblically faithful, intellectually satisfying, compassionate, and that will encourage Spirit-powered mission.
Oregon-based theology professor Todd Miles writes to that end in A God of Many Understandings?, attempting, as the scholar Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen puts it, “to think theologically about what it means for Christians to live with people of other faiths and about the relationship of Christianity to other religions.”
List of Abbreviations x
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1 The Exclusivity of Christ and a Christian Theology of Religions 1
Chapter 2 The Bible and Religions 33
Chapter 3 Universalism, Hell, and Conditional Immortality 95
Chapter 4 Pluralism 137
Chapter 5 Inclusivism I: Nonevangelical Expressions 183
Chapter 6 Inclusivism II: Evangelical Expressions 210
Chapter 7 The Starting Point for a Biblical Theology of Religions-Christ or the Spirit? 247
Chapter 8 Son and Spirit: The Christ-Glorifying Work of the Holy Spirit 277
Chapter 9 A Christian Theology of Religions and Mission 328
Bibliography 355
Name Index 363
Subject Index 369
Scripture Index 375
Overview
Western Christianity’s interaction with world religions used to be, for the most part, overseas. Today, “religious others” often live next door. At a changing time when one public prayer spoken during the 2009 U.S. presidential inauguration festivities was addressed to “O god of our many understandings,” the evangelical Christian church should do more than simply dismiss non-Christian religions as pagan without argument or comment. The Church needs a theology of religions that is Christ-honoring, biblically ...