Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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Many pluralists espouse a ‘soterio-centric’ concern for global humanity (Knitter, in
Taylor, 2000:96). This supposes that the world’s major religions can come together to
produce a moral - ethical foundation upon which societies can be guided. I believe this is
a barren expectation, for the world’s major religions have proven just the opposite
throughout history. Nothing has, or is likely to change to make this a reality. The past
one hundred years have been a time of great conflict on earth, much of it rooted in interreligious
conflict.
The obvious reason the major religions have been, and are unable to come to
agreement, is that their tenets are fundamentally different. Further, true adherents,
especially of the fundamentalist variety, are not about to surrender their beliefs, even to
have so-called ‘peace,’ for even world peace can be a fiction. Even Jesus said: “Do not
think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword”
(Mat. 10:34). Jesus was, of course, not suggesting, or permitting violence as a means of
advancing the Kingdom of God -- contrary to other religions -- but instead acknowledging
the reality that the true disciple would not surrender faith in Christ even to have peace
(cf., Mat. 10). For the true disciple, even of some other religions, surrendering their faith
to please the pluralists is tantamount to heresy, disobedience, and blasphemy.
To embrace one faith over another suggests minimally that one religion is better than
another, according to some standard of comparison. Many people are born and raised in
cultural environments in which they are conditioned to preference one religion, or
another. To be a Turk, for example, is to be Muslim -- and so forth. The pluralist agenda
to bring the world religions together somehow, working toward common goals and world
peace is noble -- and God does bless the peacemakers (cf., Mat. 5:9a) -- but naive.
Religion is very important to most people on earth, but just what is religion’s proper
place in society What if religion could be so marginalised as to have little or no affect
on society What if religion could be replaced with humanistic sensibilities, for example,
as the modernists have long wanted Would the world be a better place Would world
peace then be attainable The short answer is ‘no’ to all.
Lesslie Newbigin maintained that in Western cultures there has come to be a duality
of public facts and private values, where all religions are relegated to the private realm --
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa