My Expectations about a Seminary Student’s Theology of World Religions

My Expectations about a Seminary Student’s Theology of World Religions
Paul D. Numrich, February 2009

Seminary students rightly wonder how their instructors will grade theological assignments. In many of my courses, I ask students to evaluate other religions theologically. These are my expectations.

But first, let me point out that there is not one Christian theology of world religions. Can you name an issue of importance about which Christians have fully agreed. Why should this topic be any different?

I have my own theology of world religions but it need not be parroted by my students. Note the second half of my program’s motto: “Understanding the religions of the world and exploring the variety of Christian perspectives on them” (linked at http://www.tcgcohio.org). Note also the course objectives on my syllabi that encourage students to develop their own perspectives on world religions. I have given “A” grades to papers with which I disagree on virtually all theological points.

So, what do I expect, if not agreement with my own theology? I expect a seminary student’s theology of world religions to be scholarly, clearly articulated, sophisticated, intellectually sound, and supported by authoritative sources. Moreover, I evaluate written and oral coursework according to three criteria—research, conceptualization, and presentation—not my own theological predilections.

While I value the variety of Christian perspectives on the world’s religions, I demand an appropriate Christian attitude and approach toward them and their adherents. In his book, How to Study Religion, evangelical seminary professor Terry C. Muck offers four guiding principles for the academic study of world religions that also apply to a theological approach:

  • Respect: “Respect means not laughing at, mocking, or belittling the ideas that other people use to order their lives. . . . Respecting other people’s beliefs doesn’t mean indiscriminately agreeing with everything you run across. However, it does entail realizing that these sometimes strange beliefs are extremely important to people. . . . [C]ivilized people do not belittle religious beliefs just because they are different. In a very important sense, as religious beings we are all in the same boat—searching for a safe harbor.” (40, 41)
  • Humility, speaking here specifically of Christian theology: “Human beings cannot fully fathom the extraordinary nature of God. This element of mystery, combined with our human status as creatures in the Creator-creature relationship, means that humility is the only proper response in the face of God’s existence. . . . [H]umility is a way of doing a reality check. For Christians it means that even though we may think our religion is the one, true religion, we still don’t know everything there is to know about God.” (43, 44)
  • Sensitivity: “A good rule of thumb is for you to expect to have to make a great effort on two fronts. First, go out of your way to describe other people’s religious beliefs in charitable, understanding terms. Second, realize that, if your religion is as true as you think it is, it will withstand a great deal of honest, objective scrutiny.” (45) Under this point, I would add the following: Make fair comparisons between your faith and the faiths of others. It is unfair to compare apples and oranges, the worst in another religion with the best in yours. Neither is it fair to create “straw man” caricatures of another religion in order to knock it down.
  • Self-advocacy: “[A]ll religions in some sense self-advocate. All advocate. All teach that their way is the true and right way. . . . [T]he question we face is not whether it [self-advocacy] should be done, but when . . . [and] how.” (46, 47)

    • I draw upon two New Testament passages in demanding an appropriate Christian attitude and approach toward world religions and their adherents. The first, 1 Peter 3:15-16, describes the tone of Christian witness: “[A]lways be ready to answer anyone who demands of you an accounting of the hope that is yours. Yet [do so] out of humility and reverence . . .” (Michaels 183). The second passage, the famous Love Chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, deserves reading in its entirety for the guidance it provides in relating to others, including adherents of other religions:

    If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (RSV)

    Our theologies of world religions can vary. Intelligent and informed Christians can disagree. But our love for the adherents of world religions must not waver.

    Works Cited

    Michaels, J. Ramsey. 1 Peter. Word Biblical Commentary 49. Waco: Word, 1988.

    Muck, Terry C. How to Study Religion: A Beginning Guide to Method. Wilmore: Wood Hill, 2005.