Ecumenical Debate: Preaching Jesus While Respecting Other Faiths

As they discussed global missions, ecumenical leaders gathered here also wrestled with the thorny question of how Christians can preach Jesus and still respect the integrity of other faith traditions.

An openness to truths in other world religions has been acknowledged previously by liberal Protestants and Roman Catholic leaders, but it has not been so easy to agree on how best to express that and what it means in practice.

At the World Council of Churches’ Conference on Mission and Evangelism, an 11-day conference that ends Thursday, the Rev. Eugene Stockwell of Geneva, director of the council’s Commission of World Mission and Evangelism, offered a borrowed philosophy. He suggested that when Christians are asked if Jesus is the only way, they might respond like British ecumenist Pauline Webb, who answers, “Yes,” “No,” and “I don’t know.”

‘History of Arrogance’

Stockwell, a United Methodist, explained that “yes” affirms a Christian’s personal faith and the truth of God’s revelation in Jesus; “I don’t know” acknowledges that people of other faiths have travelled diverse paths to “a profound relationship to God,” and “no” recognizes that eternal salvation is for God to determine.

“In the face of our checkered Christian history of arrogance and intolerance we have little standing to decide who will be saved and who will not,” Stockwell said. “God’s purposes are so much broader than ours.”

The 700 delegates have no authority over the 306 denominations that make up the World Council of Churches, but presumably the discussions will help solidify or modify the views of individuals who play key roles in mission and evangelism in more than 100 countries.

That perspective on evangelism here contrasts with the recent statement by an international group of 15 evangelical theologians who endorsed evangelizing efforts among Jews in light of some evangelical uncertainty over its propriety.

Called Form of Anti-Semitism

“Failure to preach the gospel to the Jewish people would be a form of anti-Semitism, depriving this particular community of its right to hear the gospel,” said the statement adopted at an April 26-29 consultation in Bermuda.

The meeting was chaired by Vernon Grounds, president emeritus of Denver Seminary. One signer, David Wells of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, decried a popular mainline Protestant theology that God’s covenant with the Jews was not superseded by the Christian covenant, saying the notion was “a marvelous excuse not to preach the gospel.”

The document, also signed by Arthur Glasser of Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., and J.I. Packer of Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., was severely criticized by Jewish leaders active in interfaith work.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said this week the statement was “retrograde and primitive. It is a desperate attempt to stop the clock of progress in interreligious relations.” Rabbi James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee claimed the statement is “shot through with the ancient Christian ‘teaching of contempt’ for Jews and Judaism.”