2002 Articles

Religious Pluralism and Religious Imagination: Can a Pluralistic Theology Sustain Christian Faith?

Knitter, Paul

Does a pluralist theology of religions spell the death of the religious imagination?' — That, I take it, is the question we are all wrestling with in this conference. Or, to phrase the issue in my own language: Is the essential role played by the imagination in the experience of faith jeopardized by a theology that sees Christianity as one among many other universal and valid religions? To lay out fully the content and concerns of the question would possibly require another paper in itself. I don't want to get bogged down, as theologians often do, in first honing definitions and sorting out distinctions. But some clarity on how we (or, at least I) understand the terms of our conversation is necessary.