Protestant approaches to other religions

Program / Course 18: World Religions / Lesson 7.3

What you will learn

• Describe the Reformation-era and confessional Protestant view of salvation and other religions.
• Describe the main twentieth century debates: Barth, the missionary conferences, the evangelical Lausanne movement and liberal pluralism.
• Explain Protestant concepts such as general revelation, common grace and prevenient grace.
• Recognize the diversity of Protestant opinion and avoid treating one voice as all.

The big idea

Protestant views of other religions range from firm exclusivism to inclusivism to pluralism. The Reformers and the confessions taught that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, and most Protestants since have held that the gospel must be preached to all. At the same time, Protestants have long affirmed that God gives some knowledge of himself to all people, and that goodness is found among non-Christians through common grace. In the twentieth century, Protestants divided over how to apply these teachings, and the debate continues.

Key terms

Sola fide and solus Christus

Faith alone and Christ alone: Reformation slogans that salvation is received by faith and is accomplished only in Christ.

General revelation

Knowledge of God available to all through creation and conscience (Psalm 19, Romans 1 and 2).

Common grace

In Reformed thought, God’s undeserved goodness shown to all people, restraining sin and giving gifts such as reason, art and moral sense, apart from saving grace.

Prevenient grace

In Wesleyan and Arminian thought, God’s grace that comes before faith and enables every person to respond to him.

Lausanne Covenant

A statement of evangelical mission produced at the 1974 Lausanne congress, which affirms that Christ is the only Savior and that all should hear the gospel.

Missio Dei

The mission of God: the idea, emphasized in the twentieth century, that mission begins with God’s own sending of the Son and the Spirit.

Evangelical

A broad Protestant movement stressing the authority of the Bible, the cross, conversion and active witness.

Background

The Reformation took place before most Europeans had contact with Asian religions, and the Reformers wrote mostly about Roman Catholics, Jews and Muslims. Luther and Calvin both saw Islam as a serious threat and held that Muslims and Jews, like all, need Christ. Their writings do not give a developed theology of religions, but they set the principles later Protestants used.

Contact with the wider world came with the missionary movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Protestant missionaries often learned the languages and cultures they met, and some wrote respectful studies, while others condemned the religions they found. The twentieth century saw Protestant debate over the relation of Christianity to other faiths, which still shapes churches today.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The Reformation and the confessions

The Reformers taught that sinners are justified by grace through faith in Christ, apart from works, and that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). Calvin taught that all people have a sense of divinity, and that this knowledge leaves them without excuse, but that it produces idolatry unless corrected by Scripture. He also admired the gifts of pagan writers, which he attributed to the Spirit of God.

The Westminster Confession (1646) states that those not professing the Christian religion cannot be saved, however diligent they may be to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and that to say otherwise is very pernicious. It also speaks of elect infants and others incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word, who are regenerated by Christ through the Spirit, who works when and where he pleases (10.3). Even this strict confession thus leaves room for the sovereign work of God.

Step 2: The missionary age and Barth

The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910 gave great energy to the idea of evangelizing the world, and included voices that saw value in other faiths. A 1932 American report, Rethinking Missions, argued for a more cooperative approach and was widely criticized by many mission leaders. Hendrik Kraemer, a Dutch missionary scholar, in 1938 argued for the uniqueness of the revelation in Christ, in contrast with all human religions.

Karl Barth, the most influential Protestant theologian of the century, taught that religion, as a human effort to reach God, is unbelief, and that God has revealed himself only in Jesus Christ. Barth did not say that individual non-Christians were lost. He said that God’s grace in Christ is free and that Christians cannot limit it. Barth also taught that Christianity too, as a religion, stands under judgment. His position is often called exclusivist about revelation and open about the fate of individuals.

Step 3: Evangelical approaches

The Lausanne Covenant (1974), drafted with John Stott, affirms that there is only one Savior and one gospel, rejects the idea that Christ speaks equally through all religions, and calls for evangelism with respect and without coercion. Evangelical writers often hold that the Bible teaches that explicit faith in Christ is necessary, and some add that God may save the unevangelized in ways not stated.

Within evangelicalism there is variety. Many hold the restrictive view, that conscious faith is required. Some, like Clark Pinnock in A Wideness in God’s Mercy (1992), argue for a wider hope, that people may respond to God by faith as best they know him and be saved by Christ’s work. John Stott held that the unreached are not saved apart from Christ, and wrote tentatively that the final fate of the lost may be annihilation, a view other evangelicals dispute. Others suggest that God will give the unreached a chance after death, though few hold this.

Step 4: Mainline and liberal approaches

Many mainline Protestants emphasize dialogue and shared service with people of other religions, and some have moved toward pluralism. Friedrich Schleiermacher in the nineteenth century described religion in terms of feeling of dependence on God and saw Christianity as the highest form among others. Paul Tillich in the twentieth century spoke of the Christ event as the center of history, and also of the depth of other religions. John Hick argued for pluralism and the Real.

Mainline churches have set up programs for interfaith relations and have often rejected proselytism. Critics from within the Protestant world say that this weakens the core claims of the gospel. Supporters say it is more faithful to Christ’s love and more honest about the limits of human knowledge.

Step 5: Other voices

Lesslie Newbigin, a British missionary bishop in India, argued in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989) that the gospel is public truth that cannot be reduced to private opinion, and that Christians should hold their convictions with confidence and humility, since all knowledge rests on commitments. He rejected both exclusivism that ignores God’s work beyond the church and pluralism that denies the uniqueness of Christ, in a position that many find helpful.

Pentecostal and charismatic Protestants, now a large share of the world’s Christians, often stress the work of the Spirit in healing and conversion and hold varied views. Anabaptists stress peaceful witness and refuse coercion. African, Asian and Latin American Protestants bring their own contexts, with many living beside Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists. Protestant approaches vary widely, and the student should say which Protestants are meant.

1. What does the Reformation principle of Christ alone imply for other religions?
2. How does Barth’s criticism of religion apply to Christianity as well?
3. Why might common grace explain the goodness found in non-Christians?
4. What is the difference between a restrictive and a wider hope among evangelicals?
5. How does Newbigin avoid both arrogance and relativism?
6. How should a Protestant weigh the confessions against the questions of today?

Examples

Different perspectives

Reformed and Lutheran

Confessional Reformed and Lutheran churches hold that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, that the gospel must be preached to all, and that the fate of those who never hear is in God’s hands, whom Scripture shows to be just. They speak of common grace and general revelation as real but insufficient for salvation.

Evangelical

Evangelicals typically stress the need to hear and believe the gospel and the duty of mission, citing Romans 10:13-15 and Matthew 28:19. Some hold a wider hope. They commonly affirm the dignity of all persons and insist that evangelism be done with respect.

Wesleyan and Pentecostal

Wesleyans hold that prevenient grace is given to all, which enables a free response, and many hold that God deals justly with the unreached. Pentecostals, a diverse group, emphasize the Spirit’s work and, in many places, evangelism and healing among people of other faiths.

Mainline and liberal

Mainline Protestants often stress interfaith dialogue, shared service and humility about final judgments. Some adopt pluralism in the style of Hick, while others hold to the uniqueness of Christ with a wide hope. Critics from the evangelical side say that the central claims of the faith are weakened, and defenders reply that they are being rightly rethought.

Catholic and Orthodox observers

Catholic and Orthodox Christians commonly note that Protestant disagreement on this question follows from the lack of a central teaching office, and Protestants reply that Scripture and the confessions are sufficient guides, and that unity does not require uniformity. The three branches agree on Christ as Savior.

Why it matters

Protestants are a large and varied group, and a student can easily mistake one Protestant voice for the whole. Seeing the range, from the strict confessions to Barth to Lausanne to Newbigin and Hick, shows both the common core and the open questions. It also helps readers from any branch to understand their Protestant neighbors fairly.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Which Protestant voice in this lesson do you find most persuasive, and why?
2. How can Protestants affirm Christ alone and also affirm real goodness in non-Christians?
3. What can a Protestant learn from Catholic and Orthodox approaches, and vice versa?
4. Is Newbigin’s balance of confidence and humility possible in practice?

Independent assignment

Three Protestant voices

In your notebook, choose three of the following: the Westminster Confession, Barth, the Lausanne Covenant, Pinnock, Newbigin and Hick. For each, write about 120 words stating the position in terms its holder would accept. Then write about 150 words comparing two of them, naming what they share and where they differ. Use a primary source for at least one.

Further study

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Read Book I, chapters 3 to 5 on the knowledge of God in creation and its failure.
• Martin Luther, The Small Catechism Read the Creed and its explanation for the Lutheran statement of faith in Christ.
• Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, The Heidelberg Catechism Read the Reformed statement of comfort in Christ alone.
• Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief Read selectively for a Reformed argument that exclusive belief is rational.
• C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Read for a widely read Protestant remark on those who follow Christ without knowing him.
• Romans 10:13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• Romans 1:20 God’s attributes seen in creation.
• Matthew 5:45 God makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, a text used for common grace.