I have appreciated the prominence given in Theology 101 to exposition of some major world religions. It affords an important learning for Christians in the Canada of today. Dr. McLelland’s learned and discerning accounts avoid the relativism suggested in the traditional designation: Comparative Religion.
However, if the object of the series is not only education but also the provision of resources for engaging in religious dialogue, then it poses a considerable challenge to readers to engage in discourse from a comparable knowledge of Christian doctrine and its historical unfolding. Most testing may be the need to acknowledge the conflicted history of Christian creeds, confessions and institutions. Implicit in such admission would be a readiness to critique the other religion in dialogue, rather than to confine treatment to polite identification of elements congenial to one’s own faith heritage.
I find limited value for avoiding plural debates by adopting the suggested God-centered picture of the cosmos to serve as the ultimate abstract referent for placing the particular features of a plural religious mosaic. It is precisely at the point of advancing theistic, or non-theistic, accounts of reality that the sharpest debate and confusion is likely to occur. A further limit is the fact that important religions such as Theravada Buddhism and Taoism disavow belief in a transcendent being.
In my experience, introduction to the “other” religion is best gained through giving direct attention to the history and self-understanding of that faith, especially at points that appear strange and uncommon relative to our own. Important too is the gaining of personal acquaintance with devotees of the other community. Years ago I found myself a newcomer to the prevailing Hindu society of Guyana, short months after attending the classrooms of Professors Walter Bryden and Karl Barth. From them I had been warned of the idolatrous tendencies of the religions generally in their quest of an ideal completeness gained through resources of human culture and historical achievement. Humanist strains invading Christian institutions were likewise suspect. Before launching into a teaching role I gained another perspective during several evenings spent as a guest at the home of my neighbour, a pandit (teacher). I encountered there a quiet conviction, gentle piety and moral earnestness which chastened the hubris that the pandit may have seen or suspected in me.
In subsequent years engaged in teaching religion courses I endeavoured to conclude a series with a class visit to temple, mosque or synagogue, occasionally with some element of participation or personal exchange. On one memorable occasion my Jamaican colleagues cancelled classes in order to attend a lecture by my invited guest representing the Rastafarian community. In sum, I have found that the phenomenon of religion is best understood when pressing the margins of belief and practice that often lie outside the scholarly thesis and published portrait of the “higher” religion.
This leads to the observation that the Christian cause has advanced positively at moments when it has been pressed to the margins of acceptance under the ban of empire, enlightenment rationality or scientific revolution. Confessions of faith emerging in conflictual situations and the testimony of the poor and oppressed have been markers of Christian affirmation. Witnessing to faith in Jesus Christ amid the many ways on offer toward final blessing presents us with a kairos moment.
