Timothy C Tennent - Christianity at the Religious Roundtable

2002 by Timothy C. Tennent

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ISBN 978-0-8010-2602-7

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I am indebted to the trustees and faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for granting me a sabbatical to write this book. The particular encouragement I received from Haddon and Bonnie Robinson during my months away from the seminary will long be remembered. I would also like to express my gratitude for two of my former professors and now colleagues, David Wells and Garth Rosell. David Wells first taught me the importance of theology in understanding, interpreting, and responding to the ongoing challenges that the church faces. Garth Rosells ability to ignite ones passion for church history is well known. I am particularly indebted to him for the broad, global view of the churchs life that he so ably gives to his students. As a missiologist at Gordon-Conwell, I now find myself striding the two wonderful worlds of theology and church history. Under the able leadership of Garth Rosell, the Division of Christian Thought at Gordon-Conwell nurtures a wonderfuland neededrelationship between missions, theology, and church history. As my dear colleague Peter Kuzmi is fond of declaring at our divisional meetings, Good missions must be theologically grounded, and good theology must be missiologically focused! To work alongside Christian leaders like David Wells, Garth Rosell, and Peter Kuzmi in this kind of cooperative environment is truly one of the greatest joys of my professional life.

I also appreciate my students at Gordon-Conwell. Without the interaction with students in my classes over the years, many of the ideas in this book would not have been realized. I am particularly indebted to Sean Doyle, Allen Yeh, and Jeremy John who have served as my Byington research assistants over the last three years. They have each spent many hours in the library on my behalf, and, undoubtedly, this book reflects their hard work.

I divided my sabbatical between the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, and the New Theological College in Dehra Dun in Uttaranchal, India. I am indebted to Jonathan Bonk, the director of OMSC, and his staff for their encouragement and support during my studies at Yale. Likewise, the time spent each year in Dehra Dun is always a time of intellectual and spiritual refreshment. I am deeply grateful to the founder of NTC, George Chavanikamannil, whose missionary vision and heart for church planting in India is, in my mind, without parallel.

I am dedicating this book to my wife Julie, whose steadfast commitment to Jesus Christ and joyful spirit remain a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. Besides being a gifted musician, she has brought music and joy into my life and the lives of our two children, Jonathan and Bethany, in more ways than can be recounted here.

Timothy C. Tennent

I confess that although I have read dozens of books on interreligious dialogue, I have enjoyed precious few of them. Yet I am now in the curious position of writing such a book. Upon reflection, the basic reason for my dissatisfaction is that the average Christian would hardly recognize the Christianity that is often presented in such works. Certainly, the apostlesthe eye- and ear-witnesses of Christs life and the first to testify about himwould go away scratching their heads in bewilderment. The Christian gospel is often presented as one among many different paths to God. Christianity is ranked side by side with religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism in much the same way as films are displayed at a multiplex cinema. The Islamic Qurn or the Hindu Upanishads are as likely to yield spiritual light as the Sermon on the Mount.

I do not believe that the authors of such books distort the gospel message intentionally or maliciously. Rather, most of them simply do not affirm the historic Christian confessions; yet curiously they continue to identify themselves as Christians. Even scholars among the non-Christian religions have begun to recognize this phenomenon. For example, Grace Burford, a practicing Buddhist scholar, comments on this in a recent Buddhist-Christian dialogue titled Buddhists Talk about JesusChristians Talk about the Buddha.[1] Her chapter is insightfully titled If the Buddha Is So Great, Why Are These People Christians? She bluntly asks about these scholars, If they were so taken by Buddhism, why did they hang on to Christianity?[2] Her remarks are limited to the Buddhist-Christian dialogue but could easily be observed throughout the whole field of interreligious studies. Why would people be prepared to surrender every central claim of historic Christianity and yet be so doggedly determined to remain spokespersons for Christianity? The same point is made by evangelical scholar Ron Nash in his excellent book Is Jesus the Only Savior?[3] He points out how John Hick, who is widely regarded as one of the leading voices in the Christian dialogue with other religions, continues to call himself a Christian despite having abandoned the historic faith. Nash goes on to say, I mean no ill-will when I say that Hick is not a Christian in any historical, traditional, or biblical sense of the word. This is not being unkind; it is only being accurate.[4] These observations from a Buddhist scholar and a leading evangelical scholar testify to the current state of interreligious dialogue. People who stand outside the boundaries of historic Christianity are representing Christianity. The tragic result is that many readers assume that the positions taken by these scholars reflect a broad consensus among Christians around the world.

This is not to say that there have not been several excellent books written to defend historic Christianity in light of the particular challenges of world religions. Lesslie Newbigins The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, J. N. D. Andersons Christianity and Comparative Religion, and Ravi Zachariass Jesus Among Other Gods, are a few examples of excellent contributions to this field.[5] However, these books are not examples of interreligious dialogue per se. They are defenses of historic Christianity in light of growing religious pluralism. These books are extremely important and we need more like them, but we also need more evangelical Christians involved in genuine dialogue with members of other religions. This book seeks to meet that need and to prepare Christians as they begin to take more seriously our obligation to listen and respond to the objections of non-Christian religions.