Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? Jesus, Revelation & Religious Traditions
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Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? Jesus, Revelation & Religious Traditions  -     By: Gerald R. McDermott

Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? Jesus, Revelation & Religious Traditions

InterVarsity Press / 2000 / Paperback

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The unique revelation of God through the Jews and through Jesus does not imply that no other revelation of God's character has ever occurred. That is the basic premise that motivated Gerald McDermott to write Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions?: Jesus, Revelation and Religious Traditions. As he describes the book, it is "the beginning of an evangelical theology of the religions that addresses not the question of salvation but the problems of truth and revelation, and takes seriously the normative claims of other traditions."

The first five chapters of the book are McDermott's argument that we can indeed learn more about Christianity by understanding various ideas and concepts from other religions. He believes that the Bible even suggests that God may have sometimes revealed Himself to those outside of Israel and the Church. He also offers a possible new interpretation of revelation, and argues that God has revealed religious types in other religions (which is different from both special and general revelation). Then he looks at three Christian theologians who have used extensive knowledge from outside the Church to help them understand the revelation of Christ better (Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin).

The next four chapters are observations from McDermott's study of four major religions. He offers insight and perspectives from Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and Islam. Each of these religions, says McDermott, can teach us something new about Christ, or at the very least, teach us how to view something we already know from a different perspective.

While many of those who accept the possibility of revelation in other religions tend to adapt Christian doctrines to fit that which is revealed in other religions,McDermott feels he has found in other religions a strong confirmation of Christian doctrine which allows for a new, and deeper insight. But there are some objections which can be raised in response to McDermott's insights, and he understands this. Thus, he asks and answers five questions which can and have come up regarding the issue of revelation in other religions: 1) Do we not already know the truths revealed in other religions? 2) Does new revelation compromise the biblical canon? 3) How does believing in the possibility of revelation in other religions affect missions and evangelism?; 4) Why study other religions when we do not know our own? 5) What is the purpose of learning truth from other religions?

Provocative and insightful, this book will open your eyes to the God who has made Himself known among the nations. You will gain an understanding of other religions, and their search for God, and you will understand Christianity better as well.

Product Information

Title: Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? Jesus, Revelation & Religious Traditions
By: Gerald R. McDermott
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 240
Vendor: InterVarsity Press
Publication Date: 2000
Dimensions: 8.25 X 5.50 (inches)
Weight: 13 ounces
ISBN: 0830822747
ISBN-13: 9780830822744
Stock No: WW822747

Publisher's Description

  • A 2001 Christianity Today Award of Merit winner

"Arguably, the church's greatest challenge in the next century will be the problem of the scandal of particularity. More than ever before, Christians will need to explain why they follow Jesus and not the Buddha or Confucius or Krishna or Muhammed. But if, while relating their faith to the faiths, Christians treat non-Christian religions as netherworlds of unmixed darkness, the church's message will be a scandal not of particularity but of arrogant obscurantism.

"Recent evangelical introductions to the problem of other religions have built commendably on foundations laid by J. N. D. Anderson and Stephen Neill. Anderson and Neill opened up the "heathen" worlds to the evangelical West, showing that many non-Christians also seek salvation and have personal relationships with their gods. In the last decade Clark Pinnock and John Sanders have argued for an inclusivist understanding of salvation, and Harold Netland has shed new light on the question of truth in the religions. Yet no evangelicals have focused--as nonevangelicals Keith Ward, Diana Eck and Paul Knitter have done--on the revelatory value of truth in non-Christian religions. Anderson and Neill showed that there are limited convergences between Christian and non-Christian traditions, and Pinnock has argued that there might be truths Christians can learn from religious others. But as far as I know, no evangelicals have yet examined the religions in any sort of substantive way for what Christians can learn without sacrificing, as Knitter and John Hick do, the finality of Christ.

"This book is the beginning of an evangelical theology of the religions that addresses not the question of salvation but the problem of truth and revelation, and takes seriously the normative claims of other traditions. It explores the biblical propositions that Jesus is the light that enlightens every person (Jn 1:9) and that God has not left Himself without a witness among non-Christian traditions (Acts 14:17). It argues that if Saint Augustine learned from Neo-Platonism to better understand the gospel, if Thomas Aquinas learned from Aristotle to better understand the Scriptures, and if John Calvin learned from Renaissance humanism, perhaps evangelicals may be able to learn from the Buddha--and other great religious thinkers and traditions--things that can help them more clearly understand God's revelation in Christ. It is an introductory word in a conversation that I hope will go much further among evangelicals." (Gerald McDermott, in the introduction to Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions?)

Author Bio

Gerald R. McDermott (PhD, University of Iowa) is Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He is also associate pastor at Christ the King Anglican Church. His books include The Other Jonathan Edwards: Readings in Love, Society, and Justice (with Ronald Story), The Theology of Jonathan Edwards (with Michael McClymond), A Trinitarian Theology of Religions (with Harold Netland), Cancer: A Medical and Spiritual Guide (with William Fintel, MD), Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods and World Religions: An Indispensable Guide.

Editorial Reviews

"This book makes a solid contribution to the evangelical theology of religions. Leaving aside the issue of the fate of the unevangelized, it leads us to expect to learn from people of other faiths and not suppose that they have nothing to teach us. What a gracious and open spirit this message frees us to have." -- Clark H. Pinnock, professor of theology, McMaster Divinity College

"Evangelicals have been wary of engaging at any depth with faiths other than Christianity. Commitment to the 'scandal of particularity' has meant that many never consider what the revelatory value of non-Christian religions might be. Gerald McDermott provides a beautifully written, timely and much-needed contribution to a field where most evangelicals fear to tread." -- Jeremy Begbie, vice principal, Ridley Hall, University of Cambridge

"Can one's Christian faith be enriched by encounter with the Analects of Confucius? Could God's saving deed and disclosure in Jesus Christ alone include a wider grace at work in the wisdom of other world religions? Evangelical Gerald McDermott says yes. With warrants from Scripture and the tradition of Jonathan Edwards, and a good grasp of today's debates on religious pluralism, he makes his case by scrutiny of key writings on non-Christian religions. Here is a fresh voice that needs to be heard in the current conversation." -- Gabriel Fackre, Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus, Andover Newton Theological School

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