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I want to commend the approach I have outlined above because it remains faithful to the ancient dogmatic teachings of the Christian Church, while applying and thinking them through in a very new context. It remains faithful to Christ and the revelation of the triune God, it remains faithful to Christ’s founding of the Church as the means of salvation for all people, and yet without compromising these foundational tenets, it reaches out to other faiths and their adherents. In this reaching out there is a generous and joyful acknowledgement of the work of God in these religious cultures (in differentiated and nuanced ways) and a patient learning from these cultures. There should also be repentance for our many failures in these areas. In this reaching out there is a concern to join together to act for the common good and to help transform society and alleviate the suffering of the poor, to herald in the kingdom of God. In this reaching out there should be an acknowledgement that we can only ‘reach out’ as equals, seeking to learn how to love and serve and not dominate or denigrate. And in this reaching out, there is finally and foremost a call to be witnesses to Christ, to be missionaries of the gospel, and to call all peoples to baptism. Mission requires a delicate sensitivity to a plethora of issues, but it cannot be bypassed or ignored. Of course, the planting of church communities is the greatest witness, especially when those communities are marked by charity, love of the poor, and serving others out of the endless service of Christ to us. Learning to love involves an activity whereby only by being attentive to the triune God, the forsaken on the cross, can we learn that God’s grace is to be found where we might expect it least.63

1 See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, 1990. (This and all Vatican documents cited, unless otherwise stated, can be found on www.vatican.va website. All websites cited in this chapter were checked in July 2009.) I have developed this view of the theologian in Theology in the Public Square (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp. 77–111; and see also Joseph Ratzinger, The Nature and Mission of Theology: Approaches to Understanding Its Role in the Light of Present Controversy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995), which acts as a commentary to the Instruction.

2 See Alasdair MacIntyre, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (London: Duckworth, 1990).

3 See Paul Griffiths’ challenging thesis on this matter in Religious Reading: The Place of Reading in the Practice of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

4. See Avery Dulles, Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith (Florida: Sapientia Press, 2007) for a very good discussion of the magisterium and the complex question of establishing the different levels of authority within the magisterium. For Paul Knitter’s readings differing from my own see his No Other Name? A Critical Study of Christian Attitudes to Other Religions (London: SCM Press, 1985) and Jesus and the Other Names (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1996).

5 I have argued this case in ‘Revelation, Scripture and Tradition: Some Comments on John Webster’s Conception of “Holy Scripture”’, International Journal of Systematic Theology 6:4 (2004), pp. 337–50.

6 See Paul Williams, The Unexpected Way: On Converting from Buddhism to Catholicism (London: Continuum, 2002).

7 For good overall studies in this area see Louis Capéran, Le Salut des Infidèles (Paris: Louis Beauchesne, 1912); and in English the best work is Francis A. Sullivan, Salvation Outside the Church? Tracing the History of the Catholic Response (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1992), and Jacques Dupuis, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1997).

8 See William T. Cavanaugh, Theopolitical Imagination (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2002); and my Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009), pp. 74–102.

9 This trajectory is thoughtfully discussed and contextualized in Tracey Rowland, Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II (London: Routledge, 2003).

10 For commentaries on the Council see Giuseppe Alberigo (ed.), History of Vatican II, 5 vols (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006); and Herbert Vorgrimler (ed.), Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, 5 vols (New York: Crossroad, 1967, 1968, 1968, 1969, 1969). For the best single-volume commentary see Matthew L. Lamb and Matthew Levering (eds), Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

11 Dupuis, Toward, pp. 29–52 presents a very rich Catholic synopsis of biblical materials employed within the Catholic tradition on this matter, as does Gerald O’Collins, God’s Other Peoples: Salvation for All (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). While their coverage is excellent, I would disagree with both in their exegesis of various texts and their exclusion of other texts to provide a balanced picture. I have found Ida Glaser’s work very helpful: The Bible and Other Faiths: What Does the Lord Require of Us? (Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 2005).

12 1994, p. 388 (http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm).

13 When an * is used within a bracket within a quotation, this signifies a note in the original cited text which I have omitted.

14 See for example Karl Joseph Becker, ‘An Examination of Subsistit in: A Profound Theological Perspective’, L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly EnglishEdition, 14 December 2005, p. 11; and Francis Sullivan’s response: ‘Quaestio disputata: a response to Karl Becker, S.J., on the meaning of subsistit in’, Theological Studies 67 (2006), pp. 395–409.

15 The Latin texts are taken from Austin Flannery (ed.), Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1975); and all English translations are taken from the Vatican website – see note 1 above.

16 Letter: The True Sense of the Catholic Doctrine that there is no Salvation outside the Church – which can be accessed in English translation on: http://www.romancatholicism.org/feeney-condemnations.htm#a2 along with other key texts related to this matter.

17 In The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000), pp. 99–142 and in Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 161–211, Ihave explicated these two claims.

18 From the latin ordo, to order.

19 I have used the version of the Summa to be found at New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/index.html.

20 This is contrary to Dupuis’s exegesis of the term in Toward, pp. 348–9, where he concludes that non-Christians can be saved solely in relation to Christ and not in relation to the Church. Dupuis’s conclusion was also called into question by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification on the book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, New York 1997) by Father Jacques Dupuis, S.J., 2001: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20010124_dupuis_en.html. I cite this not to minimize Dupuis’s contribution to this debate, but simply to indicate inappropriate avenues for further exploration.

21 See Christianity and World Religions, pp. 161–211.

22 Christianity and World Religions, pp. 161–211.

23 Dominum et Vivificantem, 1986, 53; drawing on Vatican II: the Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes, 1965, – subsequently AG), 4, 11.

24 See my forthcoming ‘The Spirit in the World Religions’, Journal of Louvain Studies 34 (2010).

25 The Redeemer of Man (Redemptor Hominis, 1979), 6, 11; drawing on Vatican II: AG 11; LG 17.

26 Redemptor Hominis, 6; drawing on the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes, 1965), 92: ‘Our thoughts go out to all who acknowledge God and who preserve precious religious and human elements in their traditions; it is our hope that frank dialogue will spur us all on to receive the impulses of the Spirit with fidelity and act upon them with alacrity.’

27 Redemptoris Missio, 1991, 29; drawing on AG 11.

28 See Amos Yong, Beyond the Impasse. Toward a Pneumatological Theology of Religions (Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Academic, 2003), although Yong becomes guilty of just the weakness he sees in Spirit approaches that bypass Christ.

29 Redemptoris Missio, 29, in which a key address is cited: Address to Cardinals and the Roman Curia, 22 December 1986, 11: AAS 79 (1987), 1089, where the Pope explained his Assisi meeting.

30 Second Vatican Council: Gaudium et Spes, 22; LG 16.

31 See NA 4.d. See further my ‘The Catholic Church and the Jewish People: Recent Reflections from Rome’, Modern Theology 25:2 (2009), pp. 348–52.

32 Letters after the section numeral denote the paragraph within the section, that is a = first, b = second and so on.

33 See the controversy about the changing of the Good Friday prayers regarding the Jews and the lifting of the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson by Benedict XVI.

34 See Anthony O’Mahony, ‘Catholic Theological Perspectives at the Second Vatican Council’, New Blackfriars 88 (2007), pp. 385–98.

35 See for example Julius Lipner, ‘The Christian and Vedantic Theories of Originative Causality: A Study in Transcendence and Immanence’, Philosophy East and West 28:1 (1978), pp. 53–68.

36 See http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI – from L’Express, 20 March 1997, without the original being cited.

37 Crossing the Threshold of Hope (London: Jonathan Cape, 1994), p.81.

38 ‘Aquinas Meets the Buddhists: Prolegomenon to an Authentically Thomist Basis for Dialogue’, in Jim Fodor and Frederic Christian Bauerschmidt (eds), Aquinas in Dialogue: Thomas for the Twenty-First Century (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 87–118.

39 See for example, Paul Knitter, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009) and Aloysius Pieris, Love Meets Wisdom: A Christian Experience of Buddhism (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1988).

40 See The Meeting of Religions, pp. 3–15.

41 For a good discussion of this see Dupuis, Toward, pp. 165–70; and in contrast Mikka Ruokanen, The Catholic Doctrine on Non-Christian Religions according to the Second Vatican Council (Leiden: Brill, 1992).

42 Citing Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation for the Gospel 1.1; see also on this matter the very helpful historical contextualization of Eusebius’ approach which properly roots it in a biblical historical worldview: Aaron P. Johnson, Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

43 A good study of Justin’s context and intention can be found in Ragnar Holte, ‘Logos Spermatikos: Christianity and Ancient Philosophy according to St Justin’s Apologies’, Studia Theologica 12 (1958), pp. 109–68. The patristic tradition is often viewed over-positively in this regard. For a spirited critique of these readings see Paul Hacker, Theological Foundations of Evangelization (StAugustin: Steyler Verlag, 1980).

44 The sources for the footnotes as given in the document are as following: ‘(85) These are the seeds of the divine Word (semina Verbi), which the Church recognizes with joy and respect (cf. Second Vatican Council, Decree Ad gentes, 11; Declaration Nostra aetate, 2). (86) JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris missio, 29. (87) Cf. ibid.; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 843. (88) Cf. COUNCIL OF TRENT, Decretum de sacramentis, can. 8, de sacramentis in genere: DS 1608. (89) Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris missio, 55.’

45 See my Christian Orthodoxy and Religious Pluralism: A Response to Terrence W. Tilley, Modern Theology 23:3 (2007), pp. 435–46 and the ensuing debate in the same journal on this point.

46 The document most important here is Ad Gentes, but see also Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate.

47 Besides Ad Gentes, the key document here is in fact the Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis humanae, 1965), p. 3.

48 See Catherine Weinberger-Thomas, Ashes of Immortality: Widow Burning in India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 18 cites this and other very interesting comparative materials.

49 See John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (London: Longman, 1890).

50 See Missions étrangères de Paris: 350 ans au service du Christ (Paris: Editeurs Malesherbes, 2008), p. 5. (English and French cited in the entry on Paris Foreign Missions Society: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Paris_Foreign_Missions_Society?t=5.)

51 See George Minamiki, The Chinese Rites Controversy: From its Beginning to Modern Times (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1985).

52 See Knitter, Without Buddha. For Abhishiktananda see: Hindu–Christian Meeting Point (Bangalore: CISRS, 1969); Saccidananda: Christian Approach to Advaitic Experiences (Dehli: ISPCK, rev. edn, 1998). For Merton see Asian Journal (New York: Norton, 1975), and Zen and the Birds of Appetite (New York: Norton, 1968).

53 For an excellent guide to early Indian experiments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries see Joseph Mattam, The Land of the Trinity: A Study of Modern Christian Approaches to Hinduism (Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1975). The most outstanding Catholic of the early pioneers in terms of theological sophistication was the Jesuit Pierre Johanns, whose Thomist synthesis and analysis are systematically presented in Dean Doyle, Synthesizing the Vedanta: The Theology of Pierre Johanns S. J. (Bern: Peter Lang, 2006).

54 For example, Felix Wilfred, Sunset in the East: Asian Challenges and Christian Involvement (Madras: University of Madras Press, 1991).

55 See the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some Aspects of Christian Meditation, 1989 (http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfmed.htm). The critical responses to this document sometimes fail to acknowledge that the document never restrains inculturation, but points to dangers in uncritical assimilation.

56 See: http://www.mid-gbi.com/index.html

57 See John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 1991, 29; The Catechism, 2596; and my The Meeting of Religions, pp. 143–71.

58 In Address to Cardinals and the Roman Curia, 22 December 1986; published in Bulletin (Secretariat for Non-Christians), 64, 22, 1 (1987), pp. 54–62.

59 The text then refers to the earlier papal speech given to the curia – see note above.

60 Such as a terrible public disaster within a community (like 9/11, or the tsunami in East Asia) or more intimately and inter-personally in hospital chaplaincies or interfaith marriages.

61 Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), pp. 106–9.

62 See the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Vatican: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2004) and for the history of the social teaching, see Charles E. Curran, Catholic Social Teaching 1891 – Present: A Historical, Theological and Ethical Analysis (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2002).

63 I am grateful for the use of some of this text from D’Costa, The Catholic Church and the World Religions (London; T&T Clark, 2011), pp. 1–33.