Abstract
Nostra Aetate gives basic and clear orientation to Catholics to engage in interreligious dialogue. The main thrust of the document is to invite Christians to build and promote peace in the world. While speaking of a relationship of openness and dialogue with other religions, Nostra Aetate does not ignore the duty of Christians to proclaim Jesus Christ who is the “way, the truth and life.” This essay thus responds both to Christians in the post-conciliar period who neglect proclamation as an aspect of Christian life and to those who either show indifference to or directly resist the call to dialogue in Nostra Aetate. The author speaks at length about how believers are to face the challenge of conversion to another religion and how Christians can best proceed in dialogue with Hindus, including those who have been reinterpreting the very essence of Hinduism. Dialogue with others should be built on truth, and that the time has come to move from attitudes of justification of our positions and fixed ways of looking at things to enter into frank and open dialogue by listening to the tradition of the other as the other understands it and to discover how the Spirit is at work everywhere.
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- 1.
One only needs to search the internet for “religions will disappear” and one will find millions of results, and yet religions are still here.
- 2.
See Hans Küng, Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004).
- 3.
“Et tamen ab initio generis humani alias occultius alias evidentius, sicut congruere temporibus divinitus visum est., nec prophetari destitit nec, qui in eum crederent, defuerunt ab Adam usque ad Moysen et in ipso populo Israhel, quae speciali quodam mysterio gens prophetica fuit, et in aliis gentibus, antequam venisset in carne.” Augustine of Hippo , “Letter 102,” in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 33, S. Augustini Epistulae (Prague: F. Tempsky, 1898), 557; Letters 100–155, trans. Roland Teske (Hyde Park, NY: New City, 2003), 28.
- 4.
Cardinal Bea in Relatio to the Second Vatican Council (from an unpublished fascicule).
- 5.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, AAS 92 (2000): 742–65.
- 6.
Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, AAS 83 (1991): 249–340.
- 7.
Cf. Acts 17:25–28; 1 Timothy 2:4; see also John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 29.
- 8.
The notion of the ‘seeds of the Word’ hearkens to the teaching of Justin Martyr, who argued in defence of the Christian faith that these seeds were implanted in the entire human race and that Christians can thus recognize the divine image in all, though it may be in an obscured and disfigured manner. Cf. Justin Martyr, Second Apology, in Apologies, ed. Denis Minns and Paul Parvis (Oxford: University Press, 2009).
- 9.
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation, AAS 84 (1992): 414–446, no. 54.
- 10.
See Bruce L. McCormack, Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development, 1909–1936 (New York: Clarendon, 1997).
- 11.
See Gerald H. Anderson, “Lubac, Henry de (1896–1991),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 413.
- 12.
Karl Rahner, S.J., “History of the World and Salvation-History,” Theological Investigations 5 (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1966): 97–114.
- 13.
Die Religionen als Thema der Theologie; Überlegungen zur einer “Theologie der Religionen” (Freiburg: Herder, 1963), trans. William Joseph O’Hara as Towards a Theology of Religions (London: Burns & Oates, 1966); for a collection of Schlette’s writings on this theme over the course of his career, see Die Verschiedenheit der Wege: Schriften zur “Theologie der Religionen” (1956–2006) (Bonn: Borengässer, 2009).
- 14.
For a recent book-length study of the contributions of Congar and the other theologians associated with the nouvelle théologie, see Hans Boersma, Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford: University Press, 2009), esp. Chaps. 6–7.
- 15.
Among many other places , see Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963).
- 16.
This is a text that was presented on 26 February, 2000, in the Vatican on Application of the Second Vatican Council. Michel Fedou, S.J., “La reception de l’enseignement conciliaire sur les religions non chretiennes,” in Pro Dialogo, Bulletin, 104–105 (2002–3): 200–210.
- 17.
John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 55.
- 18.
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue , World Council of Churches and World Evangelical Alliance, “Christian Witness in a Multi-religious World: Recommendations for Conduct,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 35, no. 4 (2011): 194–6.
- 19.
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, AAS 85 (1993): 1039–1119, no. 95.
- 20.
PCID, WCC , and WCA, “Christian Witness in a Multi-religious World,” nos. 4 and 6.
- 21.
Ibid., 7.
- 22.
Ibid., 11.
- 23.
Ibid., 3; Gal. 5:22.
- 24.
PCID, WCC, and WCA , “Christian Witness in a Multi-religious World,” 4.
- 25.
Anantanand Rambachan, “Towards One World Family,” Keynote address from the Hindu-Christian consultation held in Varanasi, India, 23–27 October 1997.
- 26.
Cf. World Council of Churches, “Evangelisation and Conversion Reconsidered in the Light of the Contemporary Controversy in India, A Hindu Assessment,” 2002.
- 27.
R. C. Zaehner, Concordant Discord (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 7.
- 28.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, AAS 83 (1991): 793–867, no. 29.
- 29.
Cf. Benedict XVI, Message for World Day of Peace 2011, AAS 103 (2011): 46–58.
- 30.
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Young India (A Journal founded by Gandhi), April 23, 1931.
- 31.
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Harjian (A Journal founded by Gandhi), January 30, 1937.
- 32.
See the work of Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference: Gaudencio Rosales and C.G. Arevalo, eds., For All the People of Asia (Manila: Claretian, 1997); also available at http://www.fabc.org/pub_p1.html#
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Machado, A.F. (2018). Fifty Years of Nostra Aetate: Opportunities to Transcend Differences. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Engaging Other Faiths. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98584-8_4
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