No Other Gods Before Me? : Evangelicals and the Challenge of World Religions

by Stackhouse, John G., Jr., ed.

• ISBN13: 9780801022913
• ISBN10: 0801022916
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Baker Academic

Summary

Questions about the relationship between Christianity and the world's other faith traditions continue to confront the church. Evangelicals in particular struggle to understand how the uniqueness of Christ and the Christian message fits within a context of religious diversity.No Other Gods before Me? brings together leading theologians from a variety of evangelical backgrounds to discuss contemporary Christian encounters with world religions. Contributors include Stanley Grenz, Irving Hexham, Miriam Adeney, Amos Yong, Richard Mouw, Gerald Pillay, and Gerald McDermott.Taking as their starting point the great variety of world religions, editor John G. Stackhouse Jr. and his colleagues examine the following questions: What are religions? Are non-Christian faiths legitimate means of accessing the divine? Is there divine revelation in non-Christian religions? Is the "Jesus Story" found in other faith traditions? How should evangelism and missions proceed within a multifaith context?No Other Gods before Me? provides a careful theological, sociological, historical, and anthropological treatment of Christian interaction with people of other faiths. It breaks new ground by asking tough questions and avoiding simplistic answers, making it an invaluable resource for students and professors of theology and missions, as well as organizations and individuals involved in Christian missions.

Table of Contents

Contributors	9	(2)
Preface	11	(6)
John G. Stackhouse, Jr.
Part 1 Programmatic Proposals
What If Paul Had Been from China? Reflections on the Possibility of Revelation in Non-Christian Religions	17	(20)
Gerald R. McDermott
Discerning the Spirit(s) in the World of Religions: Toward a Pneumatological Theology of Religions	37	(28)
Amos Yong
Part 2 Points of Comparison: Discipleship and Community
Rajah Sulayman Was No Water Buffalo: Gospel, Anthropology, and Islam	65	(20)
Miriam Adeney
The Universality of the ``Jesus-Story'' and the ``Incredulity toward Metanarratives''	85	(30)
Stanley J. Grenz
Part 3 Critical Concerns
No God's-Eye View: Tradition, Christian Hermeneutics and Other Faiths	115	(22)
Gerald J. Pillay
Evangelical Illusions: Postmodern Christianity and the Growth of Muslim Communities in Europe and North America	137	(26)
Irving Hexham
Part 4 Responses
An Evangelical Theology of Religions?	163	(8)
Paul J. Griffiths
The Challenge of Interreligious Truth Telling	171	(8)
Richard J. Mouw
Are There Disciples of Christ outside the Church?	179	(10)
Ken R. Gnanakan
Afterword: An Agenda for an Evangelical Theology of Religions	189	(14)
John G. Stackhouse, Jr.
Subject Index	203	(4)
Scripture Index	207