This piece is part of an on-going blog series called Plurality 2.0 (watch video here). Full schedule of guest authors throughout April and May is available here.
Philip Clayton (Claremont School of Theology) has published numerous books and articles on Christian theology, philosophy, and science. He currently runs a Ford-funded project dedicated to supporting effective forms of Christian community (on the “act locally” side) and to building a strong progressive Christian voice in American society today (on the “think globally” side). His website is here.
Living Interwoven Identities
Whenever we hear about a new release — of a movie, software, whatever — we want it. So what’s Pluralism 2.0, and where can I buy it?
Face it: the old product is really worth turning in. The old debate about pluralism is a loser on all sides. Either you’re faithful to Christ and the Bible, in which case you have to say that all the others are going to burn (at least that’s what I was taught at my Christian college and seminary). Or, according to the rules of the old debate, you endorse multiple routes to salvation, in which case your Christian voice and identity start to collapse, and you’re on your way to a hopeless, heartless relativism. Tertium non datur — there’s no third way.
ORLANDO – Taking quite literally Jesus’ instruction that a person must “be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven,” leadership for the Assemblies of God (USA), one of the largest evangelical organizations in the world, have named six year old Billy Thompson as the keynote speaker for its’ bi-annual national convention to be held in Orlando, Florida.
It’s a common assumption that in order to be Christian, a person must believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that Christianity is superior to all other religions. Progressive Christianity spreads the good news that there is a way to be Christian without making this claim. There is a way to follow the Christ while honoring the possibility that followers of other religions are also led to the love that is God.
