The theological interpretation of the relation of Christianity to other religions, with particular reference to Karl Barth

The theological interpretation of the relation of Christianity to other religions is defined as that interpretation which rejects all dependence on evidence drawn from religious phenomena and depends wholly on God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ. This revelation must also become religion to be apprehended, but in so far as it is controlled by God's act in Christ, it is other than human religion. The ending of the colonial period and the secular revolution have combined to withdraw the ideological support the Christian mission has received from Western culture in the past and, with the theological renaissance, they call for a re-examination of the theological basis of the Christian mission. When the theological interpretation of the relation of Christianity to other religions is examined in the context of Karl Barth's thought, where it is most radically presented, it becomes clear that the negative emphasis on the dissolution of man's religions as organized around the human center of arbitrary self-determination, is overcome by the stronger positive emphasis on the elevation of man's religions, through death and transformation, into union with revelation in Jesus Christ. The translators have erred in rendering Barth's phrase, Gottes Offenbarung als Aufhebung der Religion as 'the revelation of God as the abolition of religion; the word Aufhebung carries a stronger sense of 'elevation' than of, 'dissolution.' Though empirical Christianity stands with all man's other religions under the judgment of the gospel and can claim no superiority over them, the elevation of man's religions occurs as a genuine union with Christianity as the earthly-historical existence-form of Jesus Christ. Christianity is the one true religion, not because of any inherent rightness but only by the election of grace; just as all men are elected to grace in Jesus Christ, the elected man (and also the electing God), so man's religions are elected to the truth, in Christianity as the second form Christ's existence (which is not the electing religion but depends upon the presence to it of the being of Jesus Christ the elects other religions to the truth, in Christianity, the elected religion.) Barth's Christology supports the claim, of the supremacy of 'elevation' in the Aufhebung of religion. The world of man's religions has a definite part in the event of the hypostatic union, and as the distinction of the two natures depends upon their union and their union upon their distinction, so Hinduism, e.g., retains its distinction in union win Christianity. Hinduism is not divinized into Christianity, but as the human nature is wholly determined by the divine in the hypostatic union, so Hinduism becomes wholly determined by Jesus Christ in its union with Christianity. Barth's Christology provides the basis for genuine communication, freed from all ideology. Points of contact between Christianity and another religion turn into points of ideological conflict and destroy communication; only as the Christian stands, not as a Christian but as a man, with the Hindu, not as a Hindu but as a man, and allows the light of Christ's true humanity to fall on them both together, does true communication occur. On this prior basis there then follows an indirect meeting of the religions, the more genuine precisely because it is indirect and freed from ideology. The relative autonomy of the secular world is required as the area where Christian and Hindu may meet, each as a man. Some implications are: the Christian mission should affirm the relative autonomy of the secular world; its purpose is to convey a concrete relationship to Christ; Christianity may not be regarded as superior to other religions; the revelation of God in Jesus Christ elevates other religions into itself through Christianity, even as it dissolves the arbitrary human self-determination which informs them.