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From the teaching of the Second Vatican Council above, so far we have considered the possibility of salvation of the members of other religious traditions and the dialogue with other religions. In this section we need to consider the Council’s assessment regarding significance of the salvific role of other religions. We may ask, has the Second Vatican Council gone beyond by affirming that salvation in Jesus Christ is available to persons outside the Church? Does it consider the other religious traditions as constituting valid ways of salvation for their followers? Certainly, the Second Vatican Council is the first Council in the long conciliar history to speak positively of the other religions. It recognises positive elements not only in individual persons belonging to those traditions, but also in the traditions themselves. It recognises that there are “elements of truth and grace”493 in other religions and “seeds of the Word,” and hold with respect for what God has implanted in them, that is, “a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men”494 lying hidden in them. The council recognises the elements of truth, of grace and goodness not only in the hearts of ‘others’ but also in their rites, customs, cultures and traditions. These elements of truth and goodness must be “healed, ennobled and brought to perfection, for the glory of God, the confusion of the devil, and the happiness of human persons.”495

The Council, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, spoke about other religions as entities, which the Church should respect and with which we

492

J. Dupuis, Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, 2001 edition, p.360.

493

Ad Gentes, 9.

494

Nostra Aetate, 2.

495

should enter into dialogue. The Vatican document, Ad Gentes, directs how the Christians need to approach other religious traditions, as it notes,

just as Christ searched the hearts of people and led them to the divine by truly human contacts, so his disciples, deeply imbued with the Spirit of Christ, should know the human persons among whom they live and associate with them. In this way, through sincere and patient dialogue, they will learn what reassures the bountiful God has distributed among the nations. At the same time they should strive to illumine those riches with the light of the Gospel, to liberate them and bring them under the dominion of God the Saviour.496

The Council sought to establish its open pastoral approach on some doctrinal foundations and tried to eliminate the ancient prejudices and negative assessments regarding other religious traditions. In this task, the Council pointed out the positive values and divine endowments contained, not only in the followers of other religious traditions, but also in the religions themselves. Consequently, the attention began to shift from the salvation of the followers of other religions to the salvific value of the religious traditions themselves and the role that they play in the salvation of their members. The Council’s doctrine on other religions has met with varying interpretations from minimal and maximal to a balanced critical praises.497 We consider below a few theologians in this regard.

4.6.1.1 Minimalist appraisal 4.6.1.1.1 Paul Hacker

In his work, Theological Foundations of Evangelisation, Paul Hacker, a distinguished Catholic missiologist from Münster, calls attention to the negative aspects of the Council’s assessment of non-Christian religions. He distinguishes two aspects of religion, one human or anthropological, and the other theological and dogmatic. He concludes that just like Paul’s discourse at Athens (Acts17), so too the texts of the Council, if carefully analysed, are found to refer positively only to the “anthropological aspect of religion”: “They describe religious efforts undertaken by men of various religions and they approve of the fact that men thus seek God; but they remain silent regarding the possibility of reaching the goal through these efforts, nor do they say anything about whether the myths contain truth or whether

496

Ad Gentes, 11.

497

For the present section on Minimalist, Maximalist and Balanced Critical Appraisal I have referred J. Dupuis, Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, 2001 edition, p.165-70.

the rites and practices are in conformity with the will of God.”498 Accordingly, it makes rather impossible for the Council to say that “pagans are saved through their religions or that their religions as such have a salvific significance. The thesis of the ‘legitimacy’ of pagan religions has received no sanction or support by the Council.”499

4.6.1.1.2 Mikka Ruokanen

The Finnish Lutheran theologian Mikka Ruokanen is also equally negative regarding the Council’s appraisal of religions. In his viewpoint, in the Council, “a continuity seems to exist between non-Christian religions and the Christian truth. A possibility of the presence of God’s saving grace in other religions thus seems not to be totally excluded.” However, non-Christian religions “have no independent status as to revelation of the divine mystery; their religious truth must be related to the truth of Christianity.”500 Ruokanen understands that Council’s interpretation is in line with the “perfection or fulfilment theory so usual in postconciliar Catholic analysis of non-Christian religions.”501 The theologian notes that the Council never speaks of “revelation” with reference to these religions. “In spite of nice positive formulations which seem to express respect towards various religious elements of non-Christian religions,” what is valued in them by the Council is, “their natural aspects, i.e., natural knowledge of the one personal Creator and natural law given by him.”502 According to him, the Council fully acknowledges the moral good which can be found in the doctrinal concepts and moral practices of religions. But “in regard to

mysterium divinum, non-Christian religions are still seekers of the truth.”503 Thus non-Christians “reflect the truth only insofar as their life is in accordance with natural knowledge of the one God and of natural moral law.” In other words, “non-

498

P. Hacker, Theological Foundations of Evangelisation, St.Augustin, Steyler Verlag, 1980, pp.73- 75. For the present section on Minimalist, Maximalist and Balanced Critical Appraisal I have referred J. Dupuis, Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, 2001 edition, p.165-70.

499

P. Hacker, Theological Foundations of Evangelisation, 1980, pp.72.

500

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1992, p.61.

501

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 1992, p.61.

502

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 1992, p.68.

503

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 1992, p.93.

Christian religions do not add any supernatural dimension of revelation or grace to the natural condition of man.”504

So the theological evaluation of Council’s teaching on other the religions is drawn to a conclusion, according to Ruokanen, by using a rather sympathetic language for the non-Christians. He says, the “important novelty of the Second Vatican Council in relation to non-Christians was the implementation of sympathetic language concerning them and the recognition of non-Christian religions as naturally good entities of human culture.”505 He says that the Council’s doctrine on non-Christian religions is “rather conservative and faithful to the accepted catholic dogma.”506

4.6.1.2 Maximalist appraisal 4.6.1.2.1 Pietro Rossano

The theologian P. Rossano (a native of Alba, Italy, a secretary of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Christian religions), on the other hand, gives a very positive evaluation of Council’s doctrine on other religions. As early as 1965 he explains that, in the theology of religions, the question has to do with the value that belongs to the non-Christian religions as such. He asks, whether the complex socio-doctrinal realities of the religions can be considered as legitimate means of relating to God? Are they, then, providentially devised (disposti) by him as efficaciously promoting the salvation of their members?507 And later he does not hesitate to write, “[a]s for the salvific function of these religions, namely, whether they are or not paths of salvation, there is no doubt that “grace and truth” are given through Jesus Christ and by his Spirit (cf. John 1:17). Everything would lead to conclude, however, that gifts of “grace and truth” do reach or may reach the hearts of men and women through the

504

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 1992, pp.99-100. However, as Jacques Dupuis notes, that Ruokanen’s interpretation of the Council is marred by a biased understanding of the working of divine grace. Ruokanen distinguishes between a “way of grace inherent in creation and in providence” and “the way of the universal supernatural grace, i.e., the specifically revealed Christological grace,” or equivalently, between “created common grace” and Christian grace. See, J. Dupuis, Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, 2001 edition, p.166.

505

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 1992, p.117.

506

M. Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council, 1992, p.120.

507

See, P. Rossano, “Le religioni non cristiane nella storia della salvezza: Rassegna delle proposizioni teologiche attuali,” in La scuola cattolica: Supplemento 2 93, May-August, 1965, p.131.

visible, experiential signs of the various religions. Vatican II is explicit on this point.”508 Elsewhere Rossano writes,

It may be cautiously asserted that concrete elements of various religions or even, in the better cases, whole religious systems can be providential means and ways of salvation, to the extent that they reflect and give objective form to the light of the Word that enlightens every human being. It is clear, of course, that for a Christian Christ is the only way to salvation. The religions can be such a way to the extent that they receive and express the influence and enlightenment that come from Christ. This is the direction taken by the council in its statements on the matter (cf. AG 3, 11; NA 2; LG 16).509

4.6.1.2.2 Kurien Kunnumpuram

An Indian theologian, K. Kunnumpuram’s elaborate study on Council’s documents also goes in the same direction of Rossano. He points out that in view of its pastoral intent, the Council did not mean to pronounce on the debated question of the theological status of religions, but it does emphasize the existence of positive values in the traditions themselves, in their doctrines, their rites, their rules of life.510 We may say that the Council never asks directly whether God makes use of the rites and doctrines of non-Christian religions for the salvation of their members and whether, consequently, they are “providential means of salvation” for them. But for the Council, God’s salvation of people is not a purely internal affair, for it says: “The universal design of God for the salvation of the human race is not carried out exclusively in the soul of people with a kind of secrecy.”511 Nor is salvation of people a purely private matter, for it always takes on a social form. That “seems to imply,” the author writes, that the members of other religious traditions “are, or can be, saved in and through their non-Christian religions. For them these religions are ways of salvation.”512 Kunnumpuram sums up,

The Second Vatican Council recognizes that non-Christian religions possess many positive values such as truth and goodness, grace and holiness. It regards these values as a sort of secret presence of God, as the seeds of the Word and the fruits of the Spirit. The council realises that these religions cannot be considered merely as natural religions, since they contain supernatural elements, even saving faith. Despite error, sin and human depravity, non-

508

P. Rossano, “Christ’s Lordship and Religious Pluralism in Roman Catholic Perspective,” in G. H. Anderson & T. F. Stransky (eds.), Christ’s Lordship & Religious pluralism, 1981, pp.102-3.

509

P. Rossano, “Theology and Religions: A Contemporary Problem,” in R. Latourelle and G. O’Collins (eds.), Problems and Perspectives of Fundamental Theology, NJ: Ramsey, 1982, p.305.

510

See, K. Kunnumpuram, Ways of Salvation: The Salvific Meaning of Non-Christian Religions according to the Teaching of Vatican II, Poona: Pontifical Antheneum, 1971, p.66-68.

511

Ad Gentes, 3.

512

K. Kunnumpuram, Ways of Salvation: The Salvific Meaning of Non-Christian Religions according to the Teaching of Vatican II, 1971, pp.88-91.

Christian religions are a preparation for the Gospel, as they have an innate tendency, an inner dynamism towards Christ and his Church. For those who have not yet been existentially confronted with Christianity, non-Christian religions can be as ways of salvation, in the sense that God saves these men in and through the doctrines and practices of these religions.513

4.6.1.3 A balanced critical appraisal

It is true that in the Council’s teaching much of the terminology describing the Church’s attitude towards other religions repeats terms familiar to the fulfilment theory: for example, to assume and to save, to heal and to restore, to ennoble and to bring to perfection. At the same time, the elements of truth and grace found as a sort of secret presence of God in the traditions themselves, or in their teachings, rites and ways of life, suggest that the Church moves towards the theory of the “presence of Christ’s saving mystery.” A balanced appraisal of the Council’s doctrine on religions has to be at once positive and critical. We see here the balanced and critical position from two theologians Rahner and Maurier.

4.6.1.3.1 Karl Rahner

We have already stated earlier that the Council’s teaching on other religions was primarily pastoral than doctrinal. The Council stated only the positive relationship that the other religions enjoy in God’s universal plan of salvation, realised in the Paschal Mystery of Christ, through the universal action of the Holy Spirit. It did not explicitly state whether other religious traditions are ways of salvation and what kind of role they play in the salvation of other religious traditions. In Rahner’s view, the Council’s achievement consists of looking beyond the question of salvation of individual non-Christians to a positive relationship of the Church to the religions as such. However, while salvation in the actual self-gift of God for all people is looked upon with great optimism by the Council, the same optimism is not explicitly professed where religions are concerned. Therefore in the words of Rahner, “the essential problem for the theologian has been left open,” and “the theological quality of non-Christian religions remains undefined.” He asks, is salvation achieved by non-Christians outside the life of their religions as such, or within? Are the religions salvific in themselves or not. This question is not explicitly answered.514

513

K. Kunnumpuram, Ways of Salvation: The Salvific Meaning of Non-Christian Religions according to the Teaching of Vatican II, 1971, p.91.

514

See, K. Rahner, “On the Importance of the Non-Christian Religions for Salvation,” in Theological Investigations, Vol. 18, 1984, p.290.

4.6.1.3.2 Henri Maurier

We also refer another theologian H. Maurier (a missionary in Africa) in this regard of the salvific role of the religions. He remarks that the Council’s doctrine on religions in general are strongly “ecclesiocentric” and of Nostra Aetate in particular. The Church seems to recognize positive elements in other religions. But, are the “rays” of truth present in them necessarily be related to the fullness of it possessed by the Church? Or would the declaration be prepared to acknowledge in other religions the presence of rays of truth not found in the Church? The Church’s way of thinking, as Maurier says, is “egocentric.”515 Such a perspective easily leads to the “fulfilment theory,” according to which, insofar as the other religions represent the search of the human person for God, they become obsolete by the very fact of reaching their fulfilment.516 In Maurier’s opinion the Council wants to foster dialogue with other religions. But the question may be asked, whether the Council recognises, in this dialogue process, in other religions the authentic human values which Christianity does not possess. Only then is dialogue viable and meaningful. For, by definition, dialogue is a two-way process in which there is give-and-take. We need to ask if the Church from the teaching of the Council shows itself inclined to receive anything from other religions.517

4.6.1.4. Conclusion on the Council’s theological evaluation

The declaration Nostra Aetate places the meeting of the Church with the other religions in the broad context of the common origin and destiny of all people in God. There is a search, which is common to all religious traditions, to answer the ultimate questions that beset the human spirit, namely: “Men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition, which today, even as in former times, deeply stir the hearts of men.”518 Religions that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus, the great religious traditions of the world are portrayed as expressions of human longing to answer the most fundamental questions of human existence.

515

H. Maurier, « Lecture de la Déclaration par un missionnaire d’Afrique, » in Les relations de l’Eglise avec les religions non chrétiennes, A.-M. Henry, Paris : Cerf, 1966, p.133-34.

516

See, H. Maurier, « Lecture de la Déclaration par un missionnaire d’Afrique, » in Les relations de l’Eglise avec les religions non chrétiennes, A.-M. Henry, 1966, p.135.

517

See, H. Maurier, « Lecture de la Déclaration par un missionnaire d’Afrique, » in Les relations de l’Eglise avec les religions non chrétiennes, A.-M. Henry, 1966, p.139-43.

518

The general assessment of the declaration Nostra Aetate regarding other religions and the subsequent attitude of the Church toward them is expressed as follows: The religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens