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This article examines the nature of the claims of exclusivity in Christianity. Differing interpretations of certain scriptural passages have led to conflicts within the church and also between Christianity and other faiths. A Bahd' i approach is offered to reconcile these conflicts. The language of the Gospels is examined using insights gained from the Baha'i writings and from contemporary Christian thinking. This perspeetive in the context of progressive revelation provides a rational framework on which similar issues in other religions can be approached. Resume Cet article erudie la nature de la revendication de I' exc/usiviti au sein du Christianisme. Des interpretations divergentes de certains ecrits saints ont en1raine des conflits au sein de /' eglise et egalement entre le Christianisme et d' autres religions. Une approche baM' {e s' ejforce de reconcilier ces conflits. L' Evangile est etudiee a /'aide d' explications tirees des ecrits baM' fs et aussi des idles chretiennes contemporaines. Cette perspeetive, dans le contexte de la revilation progressive, nous fournit une structure rationne/le qui pourra egalement resoudre des questions semblables emanant d' autres religions. Resumen Esta disertaci6n examina la lndole de las aftrmaciones de exclusividad en la cristiandad. lnterpretaciones diferentes de ciertos pasajes blblicos dieron lugar a conflictos dentro de la Iglesia y tambien entre la cristiandad y otras /es. Se present a el parecer bah6' i con miras de reconci/iar estos conflictos. Se examina el /enguaje de/ Evangelio usando profundizaciones logradas de los Escritos Baha'i y tambien de/ pensamiento contemporaneo cristiano. Esta perspectiva, dentro de/ ambiente de la revelaci6n progresiva, provee un marco de referencia que pennite acercamiento sobre temas parecidas en otras religiones. I nnumerab le conflicts a nd wars have been influenced, inspired , and legitimized by religion. Simply looking from I.he Far East to the Middle East, this conclusion is amply confirmed in recent times: • . • no one would fail to see in the Vietnam War there were religious factors at work (antagonism between Buddhist monks and the Catholic regime); that lhe conflict between India and P3.kistan ... has to this day fed on lhe irreconcilable hostility between Hindus and Muslims. continually leading to new massacres (not 10 mention the blood shed by Indians and Sikhs); lhal lhe war between Iraq and Iran 16 THE JOURNAL OF BAHA' i STIJDIES 3.2.1990 has roots in the centwies-old inner-Muslim rivalry and enmity between SWUlitcs and Shiites. (KUng, Christianiry 442) One need only add the Arab-Israeli conflict and the fighting in Lebanon to show that the litany of crimes still perpetrated in the name of religion is bewildering. And it may be getting worse. A recent editorial of The Economist reviewing the revival of Islamic fundamemalism ends with the forecast: "Relax a bit about Iran. Brace yourself for the ne.xt explosion" ("Still Islam" 16). While it is not fair to blame religion for all these political conflicts or to reduce these scruggles to religious ones, it is clear that religions have contributed significantly to recent strife. Hence, it is not surprising that Kung concludes his 1985 book by stating that " there will be no peace among the peoples of this world without peace among the world religions" (Christianity 443). For Christianity, it would appear that the erroneous inte rpre tations of scripture, particularly those leading to the dogmas of exclusivity, have played an import.ant role. Historically, issues in the debate of exclusivity within the early Christian Church became "not so much the cause of conflict but its most convenient and hallowed battlefield" (Johnson, History 92). The dogma of the uniqueness and finality of Christianity has not only been a source of conflict and pe rsecuti o n within the Church but has also been used to justify triumphalism and crusades. Three particular examples are wonhy of mention. First, there is a connection between the Christian sense of superiority with its corollary of the inferiority and backwardness of the Judaism it "superseded," and the consequent almost subconscious anti-Semitism of the Christian world, continuing into the twentieth century. Christianity regarded Judaism not only as incomplete in failing to be fulfilled by God's final revelation but also as responsible for having deliberately rejected and killed ChrisL As the feminist scholar Rosemary Rue the r writes, "Thus Jews could be seen as having an especially demonic status as those who should have been able to recognize Christ on the basis of their spiritual predictions of the Messiah, and yet chose to reject and kill him. They are quasi-apostates and Christ-killers, not merely ignorant believers" (Dialogue 141). A second consequence of the Christian sense of superiority was the European colonization and consequent exploitation of what we now call the Third World." The basic incentive was economic, but "the moral validation of the imperialist enterprise rested upon the conviction that it was a great civilising and uplifting mission, one of whose tasks was to draw the unfonunate heathen up inio the higher, indeed highest, religion of Christianity" (Hick, Non-Absoluteness 19). Finally, such claims of exclusivity are frequently at the root of a Christian's difficulty in investigating and respecting other religions. Indeed many of the books and pamphlets attacking Baha'i thought repeatedly revert to exclusivist doctrines. For instance, one such work states, "According to the Bible, God's revelation through Jesus is not subject to replacement by any newer, higher, or more complete revelation ... Lordship is something Jesus does not share" (Boykin, Bah.a' ( 23, 30). Another such work starts a chapter with the heading, "Jesus Christ is the only Saviour for all eternity" (Beckwith, BaM' { 26). A third concludes by A Baha' £Approach to the Claim of Exclusivity 17 asking: "As a Baha'i have you read John's Gospel and evaJuaLcd Lhe claims of Christ to be the 'way, Lhe crulh, and Lhe life .. . '?" (McConnick, History 20). It is important to bear in mind that there are differ ing. and frequently contradictory, attitudes towards the dogma· of exclusivity among the various schools of Christian thought. The Christian groups Lhat are most clearly exclusivist have been labelled evangelicals and fundamentalists.• However, many Christians, including Catholics, believe I.hat their religion is not the only way to salvation.2 In attempting to address the issue of religious conflict, an important prerequisite is a dispassionate examination of those scriptural passages that have been used in support of the two main forms of exclusivist assertion, namely that the founder of their Faith is unique and eternally supreme and that each Faith provides its followers with the sole means of salvation. In this article, an approach from a Baha'i perspective is offered to the rcsolulion of conflicts arising from such claims in Christianity. It is our submission that Lhe Baha'i approach outlines models for resolving similarly divergent claims. Texts and Interpretations Traditional Christian doctrine presenLs Lwo sels of scriptural quoLalions in support of its claims. First, there are those quotations dealing with the idea that Jesus Christ is the unique incarnation of God: ... for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. (Jn 3: 16) The Word was God ... and the Word was made flesh. (Jn l :l,14) Jesus Himself stated, "I and my F:ither :ire One. (Jn 10:30) He that seeth me seeth him that sent me. (Jn 12:45) I :irn the way, the truth. and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (Jn 14:6) Equally. many biblical passages support the second category of exclusivist assertions, namely that Jesus Christ provides the exclusive route to salvation and that therefore salvation is an exclusively Christian preserve. The latter set of quotations are categorized by Christian doctrine as being soteriological, as distinct from the ontological passages, which confer uniqueness to the person of Jesus ChrisL For there is none other name under heaven given :irnong men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4: 12) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that bclieveth not shall be damned. (Mk 16:16) 1. For an explanation of these terms, see Barren, World Christian Encyclopedia 71. 2. See, for instance, Second V:itican Council's (1965) Declaration on the Re/aJion.ship of the Church to Non·Christian Religions. However, some commentators believe that even the ecumenical attitude to other religions is shon lived. For instance. a 1989 article states, '"The new Pope (John Paul 0) was not interested in accommodation with the world, but in reaffirming the Church's Catholic identity on the way to reconquering it" (The Economist, "Lonely" 20). 18 THE JOURNAL OF BAHA'i STIJDIES 3.2.1990 For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Tm 2:5) Christian exclusivity was later summarized in the Lraditional Roman Catholic doctrine, which stated that outside the Church there is no salvation, and in its Protestant missionary equivalent, that outside Christianity there is no salvation. Further, one of the Articles of Faith of the Church of England states, "For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved" (Book of Common Prayer 619). The Evangelical Alliance puts it more bluntly, "Those who receive Christ are saved; those who reject him are lost" (Christianity 23). · Our assertion is that these beliefs are not consistent with a reasonable Christian faith. Is it credible that the loving God and Father of aJI people, "the true light which lighteth every man" (Jn 1:9), who desires "all men to be saved" (1 Tm 2:4), who "love(s) them that love me" (Prv 8: 17), who "accepted" those who "worketh righteousness" (Acts 10:35), has decreed that only those born within one particula

Bahá’í Approach to the Claim of Exclusivity and Uniqueness in Christianity