Christianity and Islam

1a. The concept of salvation is at the core of Christian faith. Tillich (107) and Hick ("Names" 111) refer to what they describe as the outmoded Christian view that salvation is attainable only through faith in Jesus Christ, by way of the Church, with all the ethical and spiritual activity and dogma that such a faith implies. Hick says that in light of the encounter of the world's religions this view has been modified to the view that the Church offers "special" access to salvation, adding that it is "still working within the presuppositions of the old dogma" (Hick, "Names" 112). Hick finds this explanation inadequate, and he provides a modified Christian concept of salvation as the experience, by way of the figure of Christ, as "living contact with the transcendent God. . . . We believe that he is so truly God's servant that in living as his disciples we are living according to the divine purpose" (Hick, "Names 115). On that view, Christian salvation is arguably an experience of earthly consciousness and not necessarily an aspect of in inchoate afterlife.

The Islamic view of salvation is contained in doctrine of the Day of Judgment: "For the Muslim life o

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ich 107-8). He would be more critical of this view, which he says leads to "a theological and ecclesiastical narrowness" of Christianity vis-a-vis other world religions in the modern period, were it not that it was partly the European Christian response to Nazism, "one of the radicalized and demoniacal quasi-religions" of history (Tillich 108). On balance, Tillich appears to take the view that Christianity is most properly conceived of as universalist, all-inclusive (106-7), to the degree it has the capacity to embrace the whole of religious tradition while making a special claim for the Redemption as a unique historical expression of "divine self-manifestation, in all religions and cultures" (Tillich 106). He speaks favorably of early Christian apologists' tendency to seek reconciliation and convergences between Christian and pre-Christian religious traditions, but his attachment and partiality to Christianity, "especially in its self-critical, Protestant form" are obvious (108). Nevertheless, Tillich does not close off religious dialogue. He cannot really be described as ptolemaist in Hick's terms. His acknowledgment that Christianity is positioned in an "indefinite" manner to other religions and his view that Christianity can
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Approximate Word count = 2901
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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