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To: Dr. Brian Kopp

As long as the Church recognizes any religion other than itself, isn’t that relativism?


15 posted on 03/25/2013 9:32:19 AM PDT by stuartcr ("I have habits that are older than the people telling me they're bad for me.")
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To: stuartcr
As long as the Church recognizes any religion other than itself, isn’t that relativism?

Not a all. The Church can recognize that other religions contain elements of Truth but are incomplete. Here is how C.S. Lewis sees it as explained in "Mere Christianity":

I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe. If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.

25 posted on 03/25/2013 10:32:16 AM PDT by HerrBlucher (Praise to the Lord the Almighty the King of Creation)
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To: stuartcr; little jeremiah
"As long as the Church recognizes any religion other than itself, isn’t that relativism?"

You would have to explain what you mean by "recognizes."

The Catholic Church recognizes some elements of truth and value in other faith communities, without saying all faiths and religions are equal or identical or equivalent.

For instance, if a Baptist, a Catholic, a Muslim, a Baha'i, a Sikh, a Calvinist, a Brahmin and a Jew all agreed, "There is only one God, Who is the Supreme Being and Creator of all things visible and invisible," --- well, that statement is true, no matter who it was who said it.

That's not relativism; it's not acceding that all these significantly different religious systems are valid; it's just recognizing that the truth is true, no matter who said it.

That's the opposite of relativism, wouldn't you say?

Here's an affirmation which neither Pope Francis, not any other pope will deny: DOMINUS IESUS: ON THE UNICITY AND SALVIFIC UNIVERSALITY OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE CHURCH (Link).

43 posted on 03/25/2013 6:12:39 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Takes one to know one, and vice versa.)
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