Religious Pluralism as a Permanent Theological Challenge for the Church and Its Theology of Religions

Abstract

Progressingly present cultural and religious pluralism inevitably raises the question of the attitude of Christians towards the growing religious pluralization of the society in which they live. This text tries to point out the theoretical and practical contribution that theological reflection can offer so that the challenge of religious pluralism can be seen in the right light and so that concrete political and religious practice in society could follow from theological reflections.
Starting from the fact that Christians everywhere in the world live in daily existential contact with followers of other religions, the Catholic Church, starting from the Second Vatican Council, intensively discusses the theological evaluation of the phenomenon of religious pluralism and self-understanding of Christianity in the face of religious history of mankind.
Considering the fact that religious pluralism is an objective theological problem, in the first part the author analyzes three common religious-theological drafts or models offered by today's theology of religions trying to answer the question of what should be the attitude of the Church and Christians towards religious pluralism: pre-Council attitude towards other religions (exclusivist ecclesiocentrism), the approach of the Second Vatican Council and post-Council theology (inclusivist Christocentrism) and a view of other religions of the representatives of the so-called pluralistic theology of religions (pluralistic theocentrism).
In the context of religious pluralism, the Church, as a community of believers, is called to affirm its own Christian identity in dialogue with the existing religions and cultures in which Christians live. Therefore, in the second part of the paper, aside from the described triple classification of approaches to the theology of religions, the religious-theological plans of two German Catholic theologians are summarized. These are Klaus von Stosch and his reflections on the comparative theology of religions and Karl-Josef Kuschel who practices theological interreligious dialogue within the three monotheistic religions (the so-called ‘Abrahamic ecumenisms’).
In the third and final part of the paper, starting from a relational understanding of the requirement of the uniqueness and universality of Christian revelation, the author presents some observations about the nature of the missionary mandate of the Church in an atmosphere of religious pluralism and dialogue.