World Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue

Learning Outcome:

In our modern age,  a pressing need has arisen to take other religions seriously other than one’s own. Both proximity and polarisation of diverse religions and their various traditions have increased as never before in history. At the same time an awareness has grown that there is no one single universal theology or philosophy of one religion that can dominate the entirety of its communities of believers across the globe. Traditional understanding of religion is changing rapidly. Instead there is a call to recognise its contextual expressions associated with culture/other religions and social structures.

This mainly on Christianity. Its encounter with other religious traditions has led to a rethinking of presuppositions of Christian theology generating a vital effect on classical theological field (Christian Anthropology, Christology, Ecclesiology, Missiology, Pneumatology, Theology of Religions, Liturgy, etc).  Changes (shifts) in Christian theological thinking in relation to other religious traditions (including primal traditions) take place amidst the common realities that all the faith communities must face (poverty, different forms of oppression, gender discrimination, violence, war and ecological degradation, etc.). This process of rethinking has taken place/ and is taking place within the global contexts of some of the key historical processes such as Western colonialism and the Shoah (the Age of Expansion), anti-colonial movements and the Cold War (the Age of Solidarity), and the unfettered capitalist expansion and rise of religious fundamentalisms (the Age of Globalisation).  These cultural/religious, local/ global, and historical realities continue to generate a profound rethinking of Christian sexual, bio, socioeconomic, political, and environmental ethics as well as understanding the religious other.

The main aim is to identify key Christian theological shifts in theology of religions (theologies of religions), both in theory and practice and explore the interrelationship between pluralism and liberation (justice, peace and integrity of creation).  It will identify similarities and differences between interreligious studies and interreligious dialogue, and introduce a range of contextual interreligious theologies that will provincialize the dominant Western theological thinking. The debate between theologians of religions and comparative theologians will be examined. The module will engage in a critical reflection on the relationship between dialogue and common ethical concerns based on experiences of multiple forms alienation and empowerment, and introduce alternative theological/Christological perspectives that interlink religious pluralism, indigenous traditions and liberation.

Historical formation of Western Christianity as a local tradition and the politics of its expansion as the “only Christianity”. Main Christian approaches to understanding of other major religious traditions – Key theological thoughts that underpin these approaches, their methodological limitations and alternatives of dialogical/liberative imaginations.

Contextual interreligious theologies  from different parts of the world which involve specific religions and traditions – Christian-Jewish, Christian-Muslim, Buddhist-Christian and Christian-Hindu and interrelationship between comparative theology and theologies of religions.

Religious pluralism, indigenous traditions,  dialogue and liberation – The experiences of alienation, agency and empowerment, and  theological/Christological, indigenous and interreligious imaginations of faith.

Topic Question: Discuss the ways in which liberation and dialogue can be blended together in Christian theological imaginations.

It is important to use all the articles that was included and read attached file: An Asian Theology of Liberation by S.J. Aloysius Pieris (1988) Chapter: The Way toward Ecclesiological Revolution: The Double Baptism in Asian Religion and Poverty (P45-50). Read this and use this important information for the essay along with scholars academic thinking via articles.

Use more that 15 refences via citations and footnotes with page number.

To help you to understand the question, read this guideline below:

Christological Foundation of Liberation and Dialogue

From a Christian point of view how do the Christians who do liberation theology engage in dialogue?

What are the Christological foundations?

The essay will attempt to explore this question by reflecting on liberative Christology of Aloysius Pieris

Please read the articles and file An Asian Theology of Liberation by S.J. Aloysius Pieris (1988) Chapter: The Way toward Ecclesiological Revolution: The Double Baptism in Asian Religion and Poverty (P45-50). Use those research questions. Show how you are going to do it with the use of Pieris

What does Pieris say?

In Nicaea/Chalcedon, Jesus Christ is presented as have two natures, divine and human, in one person

It is abstract and would prevent dialogue with other religions

Pieris focuses on the Covenant theology

Who is Jesus in the covenant theology? God’s covenant with the oppressed

He is both the cry of the oppressed ( human) to God and the promise of God to the oppressed ( divine)

He is both the cry of the oppressed ( human) to God and the promise of God to the oppressed ( divine)

That is how you build a Christology of religious pluralism

There are more points in the book on the two baptisms of Jesus which you can refer to

Baptism at Jordan ( of water) and Baptism at Calvary ( of fire)

In jesus’s time there were many religious strands, temple, synagogue, Essenes and the prophetic

Jesus choose one of these?

Many religious strands

Within Judaism, many Strands

Jesus start his ministry at River Jordan with St. John the Baptist

That is the prophetic religious strand which is different from the others

Christians today have to choose the most prophetic spirituality of their lands, be it Buddhist, Muslim… etc

And then join the poor towards justice

The cross and resurrection

That is where liberation and dialogue meet