Theological Foundations for Dialoguing Witness
In laying the theological foundations for Christian encounters with other religions, we must begin with a brief look at the nature of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy, God is thus proclaimed: �The Lord is our God, the Lord alone� (Deut. 6:4). Throughout the Pentateuch, God is portrayed as jealous God, in that God is the God, and no one or nothing is ever to be considered equal with or greater than God. Our theological foundation is therefore being built upon a Christian understanding of the uniqueness of God.
In looking at the nature of God, we must also see God as the Triune God. Christians do not merely believe in some �higher power,� but in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is the Creator, who emptied Himself, becoming a human and dying on the cross, and who lives among and in us in His Spirit. God cannot be reduced in any way from God�s Triunity, even as we acknowledge simultaneously God�s unity. Even though this point may end up creating tensions in our dialogues and encounters with people of other religions, it is fundamental to our Christian faith, and in affirming God as Trinity, we are affirming that God is the only God. This also goes hand in hand with the core assertion of Christianity that it is only in Jesus Christ that we may be saved.
A second theological foundation which must be put forth is that of God�s general revelation. The Triune God is the Creator God, who has made Himself known in and through His creation. In essay 1, we looked to a number of Old Testament texts, which spoke of the nature of God�s general revelation. In that investigation of Psalm 19, Jeremiah 10 and Ecclesiastes 8, we saw that God has in fact made Himself known to all creation, for creation itself bears witness to God. Yet we also found that this revelation is not by itself sufficient for sinful humans to come to know God, for in our sin, this revelation is misunderstood and distorted. General revelation provides an important foundation for the Christian encounter with other religions, because it acknowledges the possibility of knowledge of God by all people, even as we affirm the incomplete nature of this knowledge.
A third important theological foundation which must be laid as we prepare for encounters with other religions is the working of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is central to Christian self-understanding, for it is the Spirit who constitutes the church, makes God known, and incorporates us as believers into the Triune life of God (see John 17). Even as we affirm this reality, we must also assert that the Spirit�s activity is not limited to simply these activities. The Spirit is active throughout creation, and cannot be limited to where Jesus Christ is explicitly proclaimed. Just as the Spirit searched us out in darkness, prepared and enlivened our hearts for the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can and must affirm that this activity is occurring throughout creation. The Spirit blows where it wills, and this means that the Spirit is certainly not confined to the church. Thus, as Christians encounter people of different faiths, we must have our eyes open for the activities of the Spirit, which may (and will) be truly active in their lives.
A final theological foundation which must be put forth as we prepare to encounter other religions, and which leads us toward the practical dimension of our discussion, is summarized in the eighth commandment, forbidding us to bear false witness (Ex. 20:16). As Christians encounter people of other faiths, we are called to listen and understand them correctly, so as to be able to bear true witness to their position. A second element to this commandment is that just as we are to truly bear witness to our neighbor, we must also bear true witness to our own faith, and more importantly, bear true witness to God. Thus we are called to a dialoguing witness where we listen patiently and lovingly, seeking to understand that which is being told to us, and where we proclaim lovingly and understandingly the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A Practical Formulation of Dialoguing Witness
Our theological foundations of the unique and Triune nature of God, the general revelation of God to the world, the broad working of the Holy Spirit, and the call to bear true witness have lead to the assertion that we are called to dialogical witness. We shall now seek to briefly elaborate on what this means on a practical level.
The first implication of dialoguing witness is that we are called to listen and learn from those whom we encounter. In recognizing the general revelation of God and the broad working of the Holy Spirit, we acknowledge that the people we come in contact with have genuine insight from which we can learn, and thus we must approach them in humility. Even as we are constantly referring back to the special revelation God has given, most centrally the Bible, we must acknowledge that Christians have the opportunity to learn more fully about God�s will and nature in dialogue with people of other faiths. This also means, though, that we acknowledge the value in what we learn only as it is subordinated to the revealed Word of God in Scripture. We may be able to learn about what it means to be in community from a Buddhist, for example, and may learn about the universal working of God, but at the same time we must reject what conflicts with the message of the Triune God and God�s saving activity in Jesus Christ which are revealed to us in the Bible. Yet, even as we are always returning to Scripture, it is fundamental to our dialogue to keep in mind that we are called to listen and learn in dialogue. Thus, dialoguing witness first includes a humble and attentive listening and learning. The people with whom we come into contact must be valued, and we must hear their words with care. It is important to remember that just our willingness to listen attentively constitutes part of our witness.
A second element of dialoguing witness is that we are called to proclaim Jesus Christ. As we saw with bearing true witness, we are not only called to truly witness our neighbor�s faith, but in turn we are also called to be God�s witnesses, truly proclaiming the gospel message and the Triune God. One important element which demonstrates the bridge between dialogical listening (discussed above) and witnessing is the finding of common ground. Our listening first of all is learning, and this learning provides an occasion for proclaiming, in that we can better tell of Jesus� loving death and saving grace as we better understand the person with whom we have come in contact. Common ground, whether it is the common belief in a higher power or a common ethical ideal can provide a point of contact from which to begin as we tell the gospel message. This listening also helps provide a common language and common word and identifiers, an absolute essential if we are to communicate the gospel message with any efficacy. Thus, dialogue means that we give a better witness.
As we have implied above, dialoguing witness must not be merely an occasion for a search for commonalities, but this search must be in service to a witness to Jesus Christ as Lord. God in Christ died for all sinners, including us and the people with whom we speak. We cannot but proclaim this good news. This never means that we stop listening, or stop learning, for our dialogue should never become a monologue. Instead, as we seek to testify to the saving grace of Jesus Christ as a martyr (witness) to truth, we must uphold our end of the dialogue through a witnessing to our own faith. We never stop respecting and loving the other person, regardless of their reactions, and we never stop listening and learning, for the Holy Spirit is working in and through us, and it is not us or our witness which saves, but the working of the Holy Spirit. We never know if or how our words may be used. We can only testify in faith, trusting to the Holy Spirit in love the person or people with whom we have come in contact. Thus, finally, dialoguing witness is a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led encounter, where we seek to embody God�s love and witness to God�s message, likewise seeing those we come in contact with through God�s eyes of love.
In formulating an understanding of dialoguing witness, it is essential that an understanding of the Spirit�s work be held up as central, both to our theological foundations and to our practical interactions. As we have noted above, acknowledging the Spirit�s activity throughout creation, and not solely present within the church, means that we must be open to God�s working in people�s lives outside of the Church. This means that we should be open to learning from others, as they have encountered God�s Spirit, even as we are constantly testing the spirits, and seeking to discern God�s working. An understanding of Spirit is also central to our practical dialoguing, for we must understand as we undertake an encounter with people of other faiths, that it is not us, but God�s Spirit, who brings understanding, and who brings God�s saving grace. As 1 Corinthians 2 makes clear, we go out in the power of the Spirit, and it is in this power that we rest, not on the wisdom of our message (1 Cor. 2:5). This also means acknowledging that it is the Spirit who is the revealer, and it is through the Spirit that people hear and heed the message of the gospel. Thus, as we encounter people of other faiths, we must rest in the power of God�s Spirit, speaking the truth in love, and finally trusting in God whose Spirit reveals the good news and grace of God to the world. May we be instruments of God�s working!
In this essay, we have sought to put forth dialoguing witness as a model for the encounter of Christians with people of other faiths. This model is based on the theological foundations of the uniqueness of the Triune God, the universality of God�s loving and working, and the call to not bear false witness. Upon this foundation, we have seen that in a practical encounter, dialoguing witness means listening and learning from those with whom we have contact, as we seek to understand their positions and beliefs, and as we seek to learn, always in light of God�s revelation in Scripture and Jesus Christ. Our dialoguing witness also includes a true witness to Jesus Christ, as we seek to communicate and embody God�s love. Finally, we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the one enlivening our conversation, and the one who enlivens hearts. May we undertake dialoguing witness in the Spirit of God�s love, as we seek to humbly proclaim the good news that is for all people.
Critical Appraisal
In proposing dialoguing witness as a model for understanding the encounter of Christianity with other religions, I am aware of the ever-increasing body of literature on this topic. People as diverse as John Hick, Hans Kung, and Stanley Grenz have given attention to this subject, and even as I am aware of this ongoing dialogue, and undoubtedly influenced by it, due to space considerations within this essay, I have chosen not directly interact with these sources, instead focusing on putting forth my own constructive proposal. It is now to a brief appraisal of my own proposal that I shall now turn.
In the twentieth century, one major way of looking at the relationship between religions has been to categorize the understanding as one of inclusivism, exclusivism or pluralism. While I acknowledge that this is certainly not the only possible model for understanding this complex interaction, it is one set of understandings which can help illuminate my own understanding.
The model that I propose, one of dialoguing witness, is oriented against an understanding of pluralism, in the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the Way, Truth and Life, and in understanding this to be so for all people. This means that this model tends toward exclusivism, but it also may (intentionally) allow for elements of inclusivism. The model is explicitly exclusivist in the sense that it sees Christ as the only way for salvation. Yet, there are also important inclusivist elements, as well, in that we cannot know all of the workings of God in God�s Spirit, which I intentionally acknowledge as broad activity, reaching beyond the purview of the church. We should certainly not presume that God�s Spirit can and does only bring about salvation through the Church, even though God�s Spirit may only bring about Salvation through and in Jesus Christ. Yet, we must not sit back, in this acknowledgement of the Spirit�s activity, and forsake our evangelistic responsibilities, but instead heed the call to witness to all peoples, as we let the love of God in Christ Jesus show forth in and through our lives, in activity that is fundamentally turned outward toward our neighbors.
As a final critical note, when undertaking an endeavor such as this one, it is important to note that the author�s identity undoubtedly shapes her or his thinking, and there is no doubt that this continues to be the case in this paper. My own identity is that of a young American from the Midwest, associated theologically with evangelicalism. This location undoubtedly contributes to my own high value which is placed on Scripture as unique, and as God�s Word. Further, the emphasis which I find in my own writing certainly includes an evangelical push toward the unique saving action of Christ and the need to spread this gospel message to the world. This is not to apologize for these emphases, but to simply make explicit note of them. |
