"...Arinze told us that he believed Christians had much to learn from “the sincere ardor of Muslims” ...
Ok, I was liking this guy, but now I'm not so sure. The "sincere ardor" of the Muslims is terrorizing Nigerians and if he thinks we should "learn from" it, he's nuts. We should learn to put an end to it, that's all we should learn about Muslim "ardor", sincere or otherwise.
This is just sSalvation, the Church, and other Religions.
Islam doesn't even believe in the Holy Spirit, as he suggests.
http://www.jcu.edu/pubaff/eyeonjcu/arinze3.htm Without intending to enter into a major and detailed theological discussion ' on salvation with reference to the Church and other religions, a brief word nevertheless needs to be said here on the question, because it is a major dimension of the attitude of the Church towards other religions.
We begin by asserting the universality of God's salvific will. St Paul tells his disciple Timothy that God "wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth" (I Tim 2:4). This salvation is centred in Jesus Christ. "For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all" (I Tim 2:5-6). This mystery of salvation through Christ is linked with the action of the Holy Spirit because the Catholic faith "considers the salvific incarnation of the Word as a trinitarian event" (Congr. For the Doctrine of the Faith: Dominus Jesus, 12).
By faith and baptism people become members of the Church and have contact with Christ. That is why Vatican II declares the Church now a pilgrim on earth as necessary for salvation. (Lumen Gentium, 14). The Church is "the universal sacrament of salvation" (Lumen Gentium, 48) because always united in a mysterious and subordinate way with Jesus Christ the Saviour, her head, in God's design she has an unbreakable relation with the salvation of every human being.
****But there are people who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church. They also are included in God's plan of salvation. There are, however, conditions. They must be sincere in their seeking of God. They must be open to the secret but real action of the Holy Spirit in them.*** They should follow their conscience in all matters of right and wrong. Because Christ has taken on human nature and somehow united himself with every man and woman, God can in ways known to him put people in link with the saving mysteries of Christ (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22). He can give them the grace needed for salvation.
But to say that the followers of other religions can attain salvation under some conditions does not mean to ignore the fact that in these religions there ~re limits, errors and shadows. As St Paul says: "Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair" (Rom 1:21,25).
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ome of the views of Arinze...