My Journey as a Religious Pluralist: A Christian Theology of Religions Reclaimed by Alan Race (review)

Abstract

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Reviewed by:

• My Journey as a Religious Pluralist: A Christian Theology of Religions Reclaimed by Alan Race
• Eugene Fisher

Alan Race, My Journey as a Religious Pluralist: A Christian Theology of Religions Reclaimed. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, Wipf and Stock, 2021 Pp. 232. $26.00, paper.

Scholars already involved in ecumenical and interreligious studies and dialogues will find some interesting perspectives in this book. It does, however, have some flaws and errors, which I shall note below. The book is a collection of previous articles published by the author over the years so does not always take into account more recent studies of scholars involved in the work that Race presents.

The book is divided into four parts: Critical Foundations, Constructive Theory, Ethics in Dialogue, and an Epilogue asking the critical question, "Whose God is it anyway?" Race goes into the history of the development of Christian theological understanding of the validity of other religious traditions and its still-developing understanding of humanity's cultural, religious, and spiritual diversity, affirming that this diversity is a significant and good reality from which, through studying other religions and engaging in dialogue with people of other faiths, we can learn more about God's relations with all peoples and come to a deeper understanding of our own.

Race describes how the early Christians brought together Jewish monotheism and Greek philosophy and how, much later, it took into account the Enlightenment and integrated its knowledge and wisdom into the evolving Christian self-definition, which also opened it up to awareness of the other world religions and traditions. Christianity moved, albeit slowly, away from seeing itself as the only "true" religion to being, of necessity, in dialogue with its many "others" and, so, able to learn from them and, in the process, become more unified not only with "them" but also with the ultimate "Other," God, who lives in the hearts and souls of all humans. He moves beyond exclusivism and inclusivism into pluralism, as being the will of the One God of us all. [End Page 271]

In the second part, he emphasizes this new openness to learning and engaging with the "others" through dialogue, and in the third part, to how various religious/communal peoples can work together ethically for the benefit of all, devoting a relatively short section to 9/11 and its implications for the absolute necessity of working together rather than against each other. He follows this with a clear denunciation of religious absolutism and interreligious violence, urging us all to meet amicably in the Public Square that we all share.

Race then outlines how Christians can come together with other religious groups to work for a global ethic that all people can share, despite our theological differences, using ecological awareness as a prophetic witness to all. We must all culturally evolve to accept each other and work together in a pluralist mindset. He discusses various alternatives to dialogue and interreligious relations, showing how only the latter can help us all, as well as those in need.

Now, a few critiques. On p. 17, he states incorrectly that "Initially Christians were cast out of the synagogues." Actually, the parting of the ways did not happen until Christians adopted the doctrine of the Incarnation, which many Jews saw as a violation of the distinction between God and humanity, since they saw it as a form of worshiping a human as if she/he were/is a god/goddess, and therefore a form of idolatry. Through dialogue, we have moved beyond this today, but this essential distinction still exists. Race asserts that Christian anti-Judaism, which he falsely claims was "attested already in the New Testament" was "eventually transformed into Christian anti-Semitism." This did not happen until much later, especially under the Nazis and their sympathizers around the world, including in America, using another form of racism to "justify" slavery. Interestingly, the rise of Antisemitism in Europe and anti-Black racism in America developed in the same period of history. Antisemitism came to be almost two millennia after Christian anti-Judaism. Jews could become acceptable within the Christian community if they converted to Christianity over the centuries, but racism made that...