UNITY AND TRUTH: Goals and Presuppositions of Dialogue
Keywords:
Dialogue as Prayer, Pentecostal Experience, Plurality, Salvific Truth, Single Divine Economy, UnityAbstract
According to biblical-Christian vision there is plurality within God as well as the creatures, as God-willed reflection of his own plurality. Plurality in the world, beginning with our own selves and senses, is to be understood as emerging out of a unity. Dialogue is based on the two poles: unity and plurality. Plurality of human society as well as human cultures and religions is an outcome and reflection of the basic theological truth of Trinity. Without accepting the underlying unity we are unable to launch any project of dialogue or interreligious dialogue. The single economy of salvation is based on the vision of the whole humankind as one family. Whatever God has revealed in the history of salvation has salvific bearing to every human person and even to the whole world. Through dialogue among the religions we seek to find the fuller scope of the salvific truth of God definitively revealed in Jesus Christ. For this each partner of dialogue is demanded and expected to share one’s own faith openly and truthfully.
References
K. Lehmann, Auslotungen, Freiburg i. Br.: Herder, 2016, 205.
Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, “Dialogue and Proclamation: Reflection and Orientations on Interreligious Dialogue and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 5. Document of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples, Rome, 19 May 1991; Osservatore Romano, 21 June, 1991; it refers to Insegnamenti 1986, IX/2, 1249-1273; 2019-2029.
Nostra Aetate, Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Vatican Council II, Oct. 28, 1965.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church, August 6, 2000 (hereafter: Dominus Iesus), 3.
Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Vatican Council II, November 18, 1965, 11.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.3.28.
O. H. Pesch, Katholische Dogmatik aus Ökumenischer Erfahrung, Band 1: Die Geschichte der Menschen mit Gott, Teilband 1/2, Ostfildern: Matthias-Grünewald, 2008, 514f.
H. Bürkle, “Dialogue der Religionen,” in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, W. Kasper et al, ed., Freiburg i. Br.: Herder, 2006, 198.
Redemptoris Missio, Encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II on the permanent validity of the Church’s missionary mandate, Dec. 7, 1990, 55.
