Abstract
The recently published Christianity and Religious Plurality is extremely valuable in approaching what is often treated as a Western theological problem from the perspectives generated by colonial history and now recognized global Christianity. I wish I had this book a decade ago when the papers in it were first presented. It will be required reading in my courses on World Religion and Global Christianity, as well as Mission Studies.
The book is divided into three parts: Biblical and Patristics Perspectives, The Consequences of Christendom before 1800, and Contemporary and Global Perspectives. However, these do not tell the whole story. Kwame Bediako’s essay on the patristic witness to religious plurality moves seamlessly into a discussion of how contemporary African Christianity comprehends and enlivens a discussion of how culture can actually illuminate our understanding of the scriptural witness. Moreover, it is complemented by Gilliam Mary Bediako’s essay on Christianity and primal religions in part III.
Similarly, Lamin Sanneh’s erudite essay on historical perspectives of the engagement of Islam and Christianity is complimented by Dudley Woodberry’s essay on Muslim responses to plurality in the last century. One can only wonder what kinds of conversations emerged at the conference from which this book emerged back in 2003.
Peter Phan’s extensive historical overview of Christian relations to East Asian religions before 1800 matches with Paul Cornelius’s essay on Hinduism in the twentieth century as both deal with not only religious interaction, but also the political consequences in societies for whom religion is a significant factor in identity.
Rare in a book that originated with papers at a conference, this volume has no weak links. Shenk on social location and religious plurality, Plantinga in his afterword about continued dialogue, Jay Goldingay in his essay on the Old Testament, Jehu Hanciles on immigration and religious pluralism, and Veli-Matti Karkkainen giving an overview of the problems of theologies of religious pluralism provide excellent framing essays for the volume.
Sanneh, Phan, and G. M. Bediako provide magisterial essays whose broad strokes provide plenty of stimulation for further research and critical questioning. I would certainly interrogate some of Sanneh’s assumptions about global Islamism even while realizing that a perspective from within a heavily Islamic society is refreshing. Similarly, Bediako’s assertions about what she sees as the rise in the West of a more authentic spirit-aware Christianity bear critique for what appears to this reviewer to be their naiveté. Nonetheless, I would not hesitate to assign the essays to students to stimulate discussion. The essays themselves are more than substantial enough to raise the bar on serious discourse and each could give birth to a volume of its own.
Gerald Pillay on South Africa, Kim Kong Chan and Daniel Bays on contemporary China, Martin Sinaga on Indonesia, and Paul Cornelius on India give us focused narratives that will almost certainly reveal heretofore unknown aspects of how the histories of these countries are woven into questions of religious pluralism. If some of them are now a decade behind current events, they age well by focusing on issues that continue to be active in social discourse in these countries. It would take little in the way of supplementary reading to bring readers up to date.
It is rare indeed to find a publication of conference papers that promises significant longevity in the realm of texts for teaching, but this is one. Any reader, but perhaps students of mission more than most, will find that the breadth of their understanding of religious pluralism is significantly enlarged and focused by Christianity and Religious Plurality.