Q & R: Is Christianity Truer Truth?
Here’s the Q:
I am so thankful for your work. I love your books, the website, and enjoyed hearing you at Wildgoose this past summer. I heard about the festival from your website; I’d like to thank you specifically for getting the good word out on that.
In a recent discussion about Jesus being the way, truth, and life; what that means to the Christian religion; and what that means to other religions; a friend described other religions as being partially true, but as Christ being the fullest expression of Truth. He extrapolated this belief to describe other religions as true and right but Christianity as truer and most right. This statement was difficult for me because 1) It implied that other faiths are missing out on something–particularly those who never hear of Christ or Christianity–that they will later be held to account for 2) something “less right or true” will be quickly discarded as false or foolish and, thusly, incorrect rather than true or partially true 3) that Christianity was actually living most like Jesus, or most in relationship with him, or believing more the things that he taught as true, whichever way you want to put it.
I was wondering what you thought along these lines and to ask a further question that has been creeping through my mind the few days since this conversation. Does Jesus ever meet others (otherness) and not invite it to follow him? Does Jesus, in your opinion, act as the most true or as truer than everything he comes in contact with? Is the Kingdom this kind of most true-ness? Are there different ways of thinking about these questions? I pray for you,
Here’s the R:
These questions at the heart of my next book, which will be called [updated] Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World, and will be out next September (2012).
My best response is exactly as you suggest – not simply that there are different answers to the standard questions, but that there are different ways of thinking about the whole subject, questions included. I hate to have to ask you to wait ten months for a response, but I feel this book will help in ways that I can’t help in a short online response.
But let me add that I think you raise a key question when you ask about Jesus’ attitude towards otherness. That’s exactly where I begin the book. Based on what we know about Jesus in his encounters with the other (Roman centurion, Syrophonecian woman, Samaritan woman, lepers, outcasts, etc.), what would it look like if we followed his example?
Quite different, I think you’d agree, from what we see in our religious circles these days.