Those who never hear the gospel 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post is from David Opderbeck... Gavin D'Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Those who never hear the gospel 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is from David Opderbeck... Gavin D'Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-15T10:33:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-14T23:46:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1405176733\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/\",\"name\":\"Those who never hear the gospel 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-15T10:33:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-14T23:46:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"This post is from David Opderbeck... Gavin D'Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Those who never hear the gospel 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Those who never hear the gospel 1","description":"This post is from David Opderbeck... Gavin D'Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Those who never hear the gospel 1","og_description":"This post is from David Opderbeck... Gavin D'Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-10-15T10:33:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-10-14T23:46:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1405176733"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/","name":"Those who never hear the gospel 1","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-15T10:33:45+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-14T23:46:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"This post is from David Opderbeck... Gavin D'Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions. Here on Jesus","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Those who never hear the gospel 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":9176,"date":"2010-10-15T05:33:45","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T10:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=9176"},"modified":"2010-10-14T18:46:05","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T23:46:05","slug":"those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/15\/those-who-never-hear-the-gospel-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Those who never hear the gospel 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This post is from David Opderbeck\u2026<\/p>\n

Gavin D\u2019Costa, Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here on Jesus Creed, we\u2019ve had many spirited discussions about the \u201ctheodicy of soteriology\u201d:\u00a0 the problem of why God\u2019s salvation seems to be restricted to so few people who hear and respond to the gospel.\u00a0 In this book, which I\u2019ll be blogging through over the next few weeks, Gavin D\u2019Costa<\/a> offers a robust Roman Catholic theology of religions, including, but not limited to, the difficult question of the fate of the unevangelized.\u00a0 D\u2019Costa is a Roman Catholic theologian at the University of Bristol<\/a> in the U.K.\u00a0 Among other things, he works with the Pontifical Council for Other Faiths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An initial question:\u00a0 can those of us who are Protestant learn anything from Catholic theology?\u00a0 In particular, what can we learn from Catholic theological <\/strong>method<\/strong><\/em> in relation to hard questions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the great strengths of D\u2019Costa\u2019s book is that it is scholarly and thorough.\u00a0 Unlike some recent books on this topic, it is not aimed at a general audience, much less the North American evangelical market.\u00a0 Although it is a more difficult read, it is ultimately far more satisfying than most other surveys.<\/p>\n

Here is how D\u2019Costa frames the theological issues concerning how Christianity relates to other religions:<\/p>\n

The key dogmatic issues are the doctrines of God as trinity, the nature of the incarnation as unique, the character of the church, the meaning of mission, and the ethical\/social challenges that Christians face in encountering religious pluralism.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see, as we work through the different approaches to religious pluralism, why each of these dogmatic questions matter, and how D\u2019Costa unpacks them from the Catholic perspective.<\/p>\n

Here is a preview of some of his primary arguments:\u00a0 (1) \u201creligions\u201d should be understood not only in terms of specific doctrines or cultic practices, but also and primarily as \u201ccultural configurations of power and discipline\u201d; (2) \u201csecular discourse,\u201d which seeks to strip the public square of all religious content, is a type of \u201cnew authoritarian religion incapable of dealing with religious plurality\u201d; (3) today, \u201c[t]he real clash of civilizations is not between Christianity and Islam but possibly between modernity \/ postmodernity and religious cultures\u201d; and (4) the soteriological problem of apparently just people in non-Christian religions can effectively be addressed through the doctrine of Christ\u2019s descent into Hell.<\/p>\n

Because we have spent so much time here on Jesus Creed discussing the soteriological problem, I\u2019ll take the book a bit out of order, and discuss D\u2019Costa\u2019s approach to the problem first, in my next post.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"