Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

How “useful” is Trinitarian doctrine for a Theology of Religions?

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Matt Stone

2013-01-13

With the AAANZ Conference, from Pieces to Peace: More Than Just Neighbours in a Multifaith World, coming up on 25-28 of January, I’ve been reading a few articles which seek to articulate a “theology of religions” for Christians living in a pluralistic context.

One such article is A “Trinitarian” Theology of Religions? An Augustinian Assessment of Several Recent Proposals by Keith Edward Johnson. In it he examines some recent proposals from Amos Yong, Panikkar and others. Personally, while I am not nearly so enamoured by Augustinian theology, I share some of his reservations about the way Trinitarian doctrine is being used by some to selectively to evade or water down Christology is the field of missiology. What do you think? Has your experience been any different?

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3 responses to “How “useful” is Trinitarian doctrine for a Theology of Religions?”

John W. Morehead

2013-01-13

I must admit that the more I rethink my theology in a number of areas in light of Old Testament criticism, Hebrew creation stories, and evolution, and seek new theological frameworks, the less I find Augustine appealing. Beyond that, I am not so much an adherent of various overarching historical theologies like Calvinism, Arminianism, etc., but am far more interested in localized, contextualized theologies that interact with various religions. In light of this a new hermeneutical foundation that embraces a loving form of orthopathy seems in order: http://www.patheos.com/Evangelical/Generous-Orthopathy-John-Morehead-01-08-2013.html. Thanks for drawing attention to this essay and raising the important questions.

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Steve Hayes

2013-01-13

In my experience, most of what passes for “theology of religions” is nothing of the kind.
My experience is somewhat out of date, though, arising from a course I had to teach about 20 years ago, but back then most of what was called “theology of religions” could more accurately have been called “A Christian theology of interreligious dialogue.”
A few years ago I wrote about this at Towards a theology of religions | Notes from underground, and I don’t think I have much to add to that.

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Matt Stone

2013-01-18

Nor do I think you have to. That’s an excellent article Steve.

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