Flowing with God: Rahner's and Dupuis' Theology of Religions and My GMF Journey

[This is a portion of an essay I submitted to my Religious Pluralism course at the Loyola School of Theology.]

I am currently a participant in an online 9-month international program called the Gandi-Mandela-Freire Fellowship Program offered by the Loyola College of Social Sciences in Kerala, India. We are 7 fellows coming from different Asian countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka/Myanmar, Malaysia, and Nepal. We have Roman Catholics, Buddhists, Universalists, and Transreligious community members. We are all involved in social justice initiatives or social healing: one is a peace advocate, three are in development work/NGOs, and two of us are in the field of education. Our educators and collaborators are also from various faith traditions and disciplines. I hope to bring into dialogue my observations and experiences with them with the insights of Karl Rahner and Jacques Dupuis on their Theology of Religions.

Firstly, both Rahner’s and Dupuis’ theology of religions recognize the universality of God’s saving will, revelation, and grace. Both acknowledge our limitations, finiteness, and imperfect conceptions of God, the Infinite One but assert that we all have this universal yearning for transcendence and that we can have an authentic encounter with the divine. Rahner’s insight on revelation as God’s self-communication in divinizing grace can be seen as a new mode of human awareness which is also applicable to other religions according to Dupuis. This divine grace (which is universally offered) discloses God as communicating Godself and the human subject as tending toward transcendental fulfillment in union with God.

This is very evident in the experiences of the Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics, and even the non-denominational people in the fellowship. Our Buddhist fellows share their experience of the “More”, of something beyond themselves, of oneness with the universe in their meditations and prayers; our former Muslim fellow’s deep dedication to praying five times a day is something crucial in deepening her faith in Allah; and deep connection with the divine experienced by two of our educators who are Sufi Muslims and those who are practitioners, like me, of the Ignatian contemplation which is part of the Catholic tradition. I believe that recognizing that each religion or faith tradition aspires and strives to experience the divine, the sacred, and the Absolute is such a beautiful starting point in interreligious encounters and dialogues.

Rahner and Dupuis both teach that the Spirit of God is universally present and active, before and after the Christ event and that the world is drawn to its spiritual fulfillment by the Spirit of God, who directs the whole history of the world in all its length and breadth towards its proper goal. As Christians, we believe that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In the GMF fellowship, I have witnessed how the Spirit is palpable in the lives lived by my co-fellows from the other faith traditions. The fruit of the Spirit is evident most especially in their commitment to eco-social spiritual healing. Our fellowship is coming together to contribute and collaborate to the endeavor and struggle to have a more just and compassionate world. In our final project, we are encouraged to bring in the richness of our faith traditions, with the creative Spirit enabling us, to counter the dominant oppressive and marginalizing narratives and structures of the world.

The point of divergence between the two models is their stance on the Christ-event. Rahner follows what J. Peter Schineller, S.J. discussed in his article as the Christocentric Universe, Inclusive Christology while that of Dupuis is the Theocentric Universe, Normative Christology. Both acknowledge Jesus as the normative revelation of God as per Rahner or divine revelation attaining qualitative plenitude in Jesus according to Dupuis. No revelation of the mystery of God can match the depths of what occurred when the eternal Logos became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.

However, proponents of inclusive Christology like Rahner emphasize that Jesus Christ is constitutive of the work of God in the world. Jesus Christ is the center and condition apart from which we cannot achieve authentic existence and salvation. Constitutive means that without this historical incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, no person would be saved. But this allows for anonymous or implicit Christian faith as a way to salvation. Religious experiences from other faith traditions are considered as “Christology of quest”- their quest or search is brought about by grace which has found its historically tangible expression and its irreversible force in Jesus.

While for Dupuis and proponents of a Theocentric Universe, Normative Christology that yes Jesus Christ is the normative way to God and His salvation, but he is neither the exclusive nor the constitutive way. Dupuis argued that revelation in Jesus Christ is not absolute and is limited given that Jesus, though the Son of God, still had a human consciousness that could not fully comprehend and exhaust the divine mystery in its totality. According to Dupuis, while the Christ-event plays an irreplaceable role in God’s universal salvation, it can never be taken in isolation but should always be viewed within the manifold modality of God’s self-communication. Thus recognizing the salvific value of ways or paths of salvation put forward by the religious traditions for their followers. This means that God is saving non-Christians in and through various means. If God desires all to be saved, much of His saving activity will be accomplished in a religious milieu that is non-Christian. Thus, the various religions are willed and intended by God.

In a multicultural context like in our fellowship program, Dupuis’ theology of religions is more helpful, practical, and pastorally sensitive to the social locations of the members of the community. Our virtual community has been such a creative and safe space where we can share experiences that are very meaningful to us, many of which are religious, and spiritual experiences. I could still freely share about my faith, hope, and love for Jesus Christ (I even tell them that I see Jesus Christ in them) but without explicitly saying that Jesus Christ is constitutive to their salvation. Growing and flourishing in their respective faith traditions would lead them to the fullness of life which is willed by God for all. Dupuis talked about mutual complementarity as an attitude towards other religions. This implies mutual enrichment and transformation. Hom, one of our Buddhist fellows, and her many spiritual experiences in her prayers and meditations have deeply enriched my life as a Christian. In some instances, I also share about feminist theology and this helped them in reshaping their perspectives and attitudes toward women. We had learning encounters on Sufism, Zen Meditation, Shamanism, Ignatian Contemplation, and Chi Meditation. All of which are really helpful to our becoming.