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Pulse
7 October 2024

 

On 19 September, William Cardinal Goh preached a sermon entitled ‘Establishing Our Faith in the Kerygma’, based on the lectionary readings taken from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 15). The fact that this sermon, with its emphasis on the kerygma, was delivered only days after Pope Francis made the controversial statements about all religions being ‘different paths to God’, should not be lost on us.[1]

This article considers the salient points that the Cardinal elucidates in this homily against the backdrop of the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church found in the documents of Vatican II and the papal encyclicals.

The Cardinal’s sermon, addressing the relationship between different religions and Christianity, the significance of the Church’s proclamation and the importance of conversion, and, most importantly, salvation in Jesus Christ, is a clear and faithful expression of Catholic doctrine.  Moreover, it serves as a timely pastoral statement aimed at dispelling any confusion that may have resulted from the pope’s recent remarks.

The Cardinal begins his homily by pointing out that passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15) goes ‘to the heart of Christianity, which distinguishes Christianity from other religions’, namely, the Gospel. ‘If all religions are the same,’ the Cardinal argues, ‘then why should we even have the desire to share the gospel with the rest of humanity, why should we even bother to convert anyone.’

The Cardinal’s statements strongly align with the core teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, which reject the notion that Christianity is one option among many in the emporium of religions – while still acknowledging the positive aspects of other religions.

For example, while Nostra Aetate (1965) states that ‘The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions,’ it immediately adds that ‘she proclaims and must ever proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to himself’ (2).

The Church has repeatedly warned against the relativisation of religious truth associated with pluralism and a reductionist account of the Christian Faith. No pontiff has emphasised this point more robustly than John Paull II, who endorsed the document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Dominus Iesus (2000), which states that:

 

The Church’s constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle). As a consequence, it is held that certain truths have been superseded; for example, the definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the nature of Christian faith as compared with that of belief in other religions, the inspired nature of the books of Sacred Scripture, the personal unity between the Eternal Word and Jesus of Nazareth, the unity of the economy of the mystery of Jesus Christ … (4).

 

In his homily, the Cardinal is at pains to emphasise the importance of the kerygma. ‘For us Christians,’ he says, ‘the kerygma – the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord – is the nucleus of the Christian faith. We need to hold on to this kerygma, if we are to be truly Christians.’

The Roman Catholic Church indeed gives great importance to the kerygma, which is the core message concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Although it sees evidences of the good and the holy in the other religions, the Church continues to emphasise the importance of mission. With a great sense of urgency Pope John Paul II exhorts the Church to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his 1990 encyclical Redemptoris Missio:

 

Proclamation is the permanent priority of mission. The Church cannot elude Christ’s explicit mandate, nor deprive men and women of the Good News about their being saved by God.

 

The pontiff is equally clear about the content of the proclamation, the kerygma:

 

The subject of proclamation is Christ who was crucified, died and is risen: through him is accomplished our full and authentic liberation from evil, sin and death; through him God bestows ‘new life’ that is divine and eternal. This is the ‘Good News’ which changes man and his history, and which all peoples have a right to hear (44).

 

Alongside the kerygma, the Cardinal Goh also stresses the importance of conversion as a result of personal encounter with the risen Christ. The Cardinal cites the examples of the conversion of Paul (Saul) on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-8), and, from the Gospel reading (Luke 7:36-50), the conversion of the sinful woman.

In a similar vein, Pope John Paul II states quite categorically that the purpose of proclamation is conversion, the transformation of individuals who receive the message and believingly accept God’s offer of salvation.:

 

The proclamation of the Word of God has Christian conversion as its aim: a complete and sincere adherence to Christ and his Gospel through faith (Redemptoris Missio, 46).

 

The Cardinal’s homily has captured the central tenets of the theology of religion of the Roman Catholic Church, which holds the generosity of God’s salvific grace and the indispensability of proclamation of the Gospel and conversion together without contradiction.

At this juncture, we must turn our attention to a theological concept known as inclusivism within Roman Catholicism, which affirms that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, but postulates the possibility of salvation for those outside the bounds of the Church.

The clearest statement about the possibility of the salvation of those who have not encountered the Gospel is found in Lumen Gentium (1964):

 

Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by his grace strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience (16).

 

This statement does not say, as some seem to think it does, that these people are saved through their respective religions. While the different religions have qualities which Christians can affirm to be true and holy, they cannot be regarded as vehicles of salvation. At best, they serve as praeparatio evangelica (preparation for the Gospel) – to employ the famous expression of the fourth century apologist Eusebius of Caesarea, although the idea can be traced much earlier.

Lumen Gentium makes this perfectly clear in the very same paragraph:

 

Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with his grace to strive for the good life, Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel (16, Italics added).

 

Nor should the Church simply leave people alone to find their ‘path to God’, as it were, through their respective religions. Rather, the Church must spare no effort to bring the Gospel to them:

 

But often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair. Wherefore to promote the glory of God and procure the salvation of all of these, and mindful of the command of the Lord, ‘Preach the Gospel to every creature’, the Church fosters mission with care and attention (16).

 

It is for this reason that Vatican II did not fully adopt Karl Rahner’s (1904-1984) concept of the ‘anonymous Christian’. The German theologian had famously stated (quite categorically) that ‘A non-Christian can be saved by being, in their reality, an “anonymous Christian”, even though they have no explicit knowledge of the Christian revelation’.

Vatican II is wary of Rahner’s lack of emphasis on explicit faith in Christ in salvation, which would diminish the importance of proclamation, and reduce the Church’s mission to an optional extra, or, to that of secondary importance. It therefore seeks to strike a delicate balance between inclusivism and the traditional doctrine of the Church as the instrument of God’s salvation.

Thus, while stating that those who ‘through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church’ but ‘sincerely seek God’, may be saved (Lumen Gentium 16), it also insists that ‘they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it’ (Lumen Gentium 14).

The greatest and most eloquent critic of Karl Rahner is arguably the great Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988). In numerous works such as Love Alone: The Way of Revelation, The Moment of Christian Witness, Truth is Symphonic, and, of course, his great Trilogy (The Glory of the Lord, Theodrama, and Theologic), von Balthasar exposed the problematic nature of Rahner’s concept of the anonymous Christian.

Most crucially, this idea for Balthasar risks rendering the Christian proclamation (kerygma) superfluous. It removes the urgency of Christian mission, and even reduces it to a mere formality.

In a rare interview in 2016, Benedict XVI gives this assessment of Rahner’s concept of anonymous Christian, which he finds thoroughly inadequate because it fails to grasp the depths of what it means to be a Christian:

 

So when a man accepts himself in his essential being, he fulfils the essence of his being a Christian without knowing what it is in a conceptual way. The Christian, therefore, coincides with the human and, in this sense, every man who accepts himself is a Christian even if he does not know it. It is true that this theory is fascinating, but it reduces Christianity itself to a pure conscious presentation of what a human being is in himself and therefore overlooks the drama of change and renewal that is central to Christianity.

 

In addition, the idea of the anonymous Christian, which betrays an imperialist mindset, is inexcusably offensive to those who belong to other religious traditions. (Imagine describing the Most Venerable Seck Kwang Phing, the President of Singapore Buddhist Federation, and Dr Nazirudin Mohamed Nasir, the Mufti of Singapore, as anonymous Christians!).

In view of what Benedict XVI repeatedly referred to during his pontificate as the ‘Tyranny of Relativism’, from which even the Church is not exempt, William Cardinal Goh, in his sermon on the significance of the kerygma, delivered a clear and uncompromising presentation of the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, issuing a warning against the twin threats of religious pluralism and religious indifferentism.

In the view of this Protestant theologian, the Cardinal, in doing so, has truly shown himself to be a faithful guardian of Roman Catholic Doctrine. He has set an example worthy of admiration and emulation.

[1] See Roland Chia, ‘“Every Religion is a Way to God”: Pope Francis’ Religious Pluralism’, Ethos Institute for Public Christianity, 16 September 2024, https://ethosinstitute.sg/every-religion-is-a-way-to-god/

 


Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.