HTS 2402, Christian Responses to Other Religions, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Spring.
Dr. Paul D. Numrich, email pnumrich@mtso.edu, phone 740-362-3443, Webpage www.tcgcohio.org.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course examines the variety of Christian perspectives on non-Christian religions and explores case studies of relations between Christianity and other religions throughout history and across the globe. The course considers biblical, theological, denominational, institutional, traditional, and other factors underlying Christian participation in inter-religious encounters, and encourages students to develop their own perspectives on non-Christian religions.
OBJECTIVES:
1. Survey the variety of Christian perspectives on other religions and relations with their adherents.
2. Include consideration of other religions in the Christian theological agenda.
3. Develop one’s own perspective on non-Christian religions in preparation for faithful participation in inter-religious interaction and informed leadership among fellow Christians.
4. Enhance the scholarly enterprise of the Theological Consortium seminaries.
READINGS AND RESOURCES:
Paul D. Numrich, The Church Next Door: Local Christians Face America’s New Religious Diversity (unpublished manuscript).
Don A. Pittman, Ruben L. F. Habito, and Terry C. Muck, eds., Ministry and Theology in Global Perspective: Contemporary Challenges for the Church (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996).
“We have marched around alien Jerichos the requisite number of times. We have sounded the trumpets. And the walls have not collapsed.” (Canon Max Warren, Church Missionary Society, London, 1958)
“We explain the fact that the Milky Way is there by the doctrine of creation, but how do we explain the fact that the Bhagavad Gita is there?” (Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “The Christian in a Religiously Plural World,” 1963)