After reading Sennet's "Worthy of a Better God: Religious Diversity and Salvation in The Chronicles of Narnia", I realized that I haven't thought much about my specific view on salvation. After reading this essay, I can say with certainty that I reject the universal salvation and pluralism claims. I believe that there is "one true religion" that is the "only way" (pg. 232). However, during the reading of this essay and afterwards, I have found myself struggling with what I should think in regards to inclusivism and exclusivism. Honestly, I tend to agree more with inclusivism than exclusivism, but at the same time it seems daunting to my fundamentalist side to say that "it is possible for people to be saved by that religion without consciously or explicitly belonging to it" (pg. 232).
The main reason inclusivism is appealing to me is because of the issue about people who never get the chance to hear the distinct message of Christianity. How can someone who never hears the word "Jesus" and the story that goes with that name automatically be condemned to Hell? As Sennet says, "God never treats anyone unjustly" (pg. 243). Yes, we will experience unjust events in this lifetime, but when it comes to eternal life, I'd have to agree (or at least hope!) that God will not be unjust.
I'm not saying that being missionaries and spreading the Word to the farthest, most remote corners of the earth is a bad thing. As Christians, we are called to spread the Gospel, with the msot obvious example of this being at the end of Matthew: The Great Commission.
Sennet's essay about Lewis's stance on salvation just really got me thinking. I would like to believe that someone like Emeth in The Last Battle has an oppurtunity to be saved.
In my experience, this is one of the big issues for thinking Christians. I'd like to see folks talk about it here. From me, just two observations:
ReplyDelete1. One could believe in universal salvation AND believe that there is one true religion that is the only way -- for everyone will travel that way!
2. As I pointed out in class, a lot of us believe that "it is possible for people to be saved by that religion without consciously or explicitly belonging to it" because we believe in the salvation of infants and other people who are incapable of conciously belonging to a religion.
Who's next?