Customer Reviews

No Other Name?: A Critical Survey of Christian Attitudes Toward the World Religions (American Society of Missiology)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a practicing Christian and Bible teacher and writer, I add my review to note how the "one star" reviews below indicate how needed Knitter's book is. The other reviewers' "answer" to the question is a flat: "no dialogue: Christianity must win!" There is no place for this kind of triumphalism in a world rife with inter-religious violence.

Knitter is an excellent writer and deeply believing Christian. If his book is flawed (and it is, with the benefit of 20 years of hindsight), it is partly because the conversation had been repressed for so long. His proposal is modest and one which Jesus would surely have admired as an attempt to find the common quest for God in many different people.

The one thing I agree with the other reviewers on is Knitter's attempt to relativize the Resurrection. As Paul says so clearly (and witnessed to so strongly in his life), if Jesus isn't truly risen, there is no reason to risk one's life as a Christian. But that truth certainly doesn't exclude the possibility of the one God being revealed by other means in other times and places.

I just can't believe the one star reviewer uses the same excessive amount of radical language and ideas that he accuses Knitter of. Zealots of any stripe are of little use to a society that is striving toward the peace and love Jesus implores us to practice.

Here is a book that audaciously promotes the idea that Jesus Christ is not the unique and ultimate salvific prophet, priest, and king of the world. Knitter's book is definitely provocative - it turns Christianity on its head and identifies it as merely one of the religions of the world.

Knitter's book is divided into three main parts: 1) Popular Attitudes Towards Religious Pluralism; 2) Christian Attitudes Toward Religious Pluralism; and 3) A More Authentic Dialogue. The first section pretty much deals with the secular voices on religious pluralism. In this section, Knitter pretty much deals with the opinions of people like Ernst Troeltsch (relativist model), Arnold Toynbee (sameness model), and Carl Jung (psychological model). This section was the most boring and unstimulating. Unless you're interested in what non-Christians have to say about this issue this part will be very uninteresting to you. The second section dealt with the various Christian voices on religious pluralism (in order: conservative evangelicalism, mainline Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Theocentrism [i.e., John Hick]). For those who are studying the issue of religious/soteric pluralism from a Christisn perspective should consult this section. The last section is pretty much Knitter's proposal on how we must deal with religious pluralism (Knitter is a pluralist) and this is where I have serious issues with him.

In Knitter's proposal two things have to occur in order for us to be "liberated" from the "tyranny" of Christian exclusivism: 1) reconsider the incarnation of Jesus Christ; and 2) reconfigure the traditional understanding of Christ's resurrection. Knitter has the audacity to say that Jesus' incarnation can be incarnated further in other peoples, deities, and pagan gods (pp. 186-197). In regards to Christ's resurrection, he claims that it is not something that happened literally in time and space but in the minds of his disciples (a mere psychological event that transformed their outlook) (pp. 197-200). Thus, Jesus was not the God-man who was born of the virgin Mary and suffered on the cross as the perfect substitute for the sins of mankind. You are probably wondering why Knitter is proposing this absurd position. The answer is quite simple: to create a utopian Communist society where every religion can co-exist peacefully and where everyone will receive the exact same paycheque. For Knitter, the Kingdom of God is not an eschatological spiritual reality that will be fully established at Christ's second coming but a Communist society where defending biblical truth will be a crime against the state and humanity. In order for this to occur, however, Knitter suggests that Christians must be willing to enter into dialogue with people of other religions and stop witnessing the gospel to them. Instead, we should promote things like "justice" and "love." As Knitter states: "The primary mission of the church, therefore, is not the 'salvation business' (making persons Christian so that they can be saved), but the task of serving and promoting the kingdom of justice and love, by being sign and servant, wherever that kingdom may be forming" (p. 222). For Knitter, what is important is not saving people from eternal condemnation but creating some lame utopian paradise on earth.

Overall, this book is a major disappointment. Knitter did not seriously engage with Scripture throughout the book (which is no surprise since Knitter probably thinks the Bible is some outdated document) nor did he adequately deal with the views of conservative evangelical theologians throughout history. In fact, this book pushed me further away from soteric pluralism. Instead, I suggest people read carefully what Jesus said in John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (NIV). If anyone disagrees with this verse they should examine their faith - since no true Christian would disagree with the uniqueness and exclusivity of Jesus Christ.

Knitter exposes the growing mistrust of revelation of the Christian Scriptures, and proposes that one not use them as such, but rather dialogue with other religious partners to hear of "their experience and their revelation."

Theologicalresearcher's review is salient and rightly quotes the astounding statement that the Church of Christ must not be about "salvation" but about "promoting the kingdom of justice and love", whatever this might mean.

Here Knitter shows his unChristian belief, since the Bible clearly condemns those who at the time of Jesus desired an earthly, kingly Messiah to clean up earth and bring earthly justice, e.g. Luke 24:21ff. But Jesus is about the business of salvation, and this is and was His only purpose and to be only purpose of His church. This message of salvation only in name of Christ is to be their mission.

Knitter is damaging and dangerous in his heresy herewith articulated. However well this might play in modern ecumenism or university environments, it will not stand on the day of judgment.

The Bible clearly takes stand totally opposed to this. So do all who hear its clear teachings and hold to them as not words of men, but words of God Himself. Let the reader beware.