Christianity and World Religions

Gavin D’Costa is Professor of Christian Theology at Bristol University. He also works with the Church of England and Roman Catholic Committees on Other Faiths, and the Pontifical Council for Other Faiths, Vatican City, advising these communities on theological issues. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Theology and the Public Square (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), Sexing the Trinity (2000), and The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity (2000).

“All in all, D’Costa should be commended for writing an excellent book. This work is a wonderful contribution to the conversation regarding Christianity and non-Christian religions. I highly recommend it for all persons interested in the theology of religions, as well as any Christian looking for new ways to understand the possibility of salvation for non-Christians.”  (The International Journal of Public Theology, 1 December 2012)"I warmly encourage readers in each to take it up and read." (One in Christ, July 2010) "[D'Costa] finds convincing substantiation for his position in biblical, patristic, and medieval Christian doctrine." (CHOICE, September 2009)"For a generation which is reasserting its Catholic identity, this thesis may serve a valuable purpose, calming the anxieties of those who, admirable, have managed to maintain an interest in the salvation of non-Christians yet are as hard put to win converts as their more pluralist co-religionists." (The Way, January 2010)"His gazetteer of these regions at the edge of the eschatological map is fascinating. The closing pages are as perceptive a meditation on what the dereliction of the cross can and cannot mean as we might expect to find in a first-rate book devoted entirely to that subject." (Chruch Times, December 2009)

• Preface ixPart I: Charting the Territory: Theology of Religions 11 Early Map Making 3Introduction 3Pluralism 9Inclusivism 19Exclusivism 252 Changing the Angle: Recent Maps 34Some Criticisms of the Threefold Typology 34Comparative Theology 37Postmodern Postliberalism 45Part II: The Making and Meaning of Religions 553 Modernity’s Story 57Introduction 57Modernity’s Story about Religions 584 An Alternative: The Secular Construction of the Sacred Modernity as the Establishment of a New Ruling 74Religion 74Conclusion 102Part III: Religions in the Public Square 1035 Whose Religion and Which Public Square? 105The Public Square 105A Taxonomy of Secular Modernity and Postmodernity 1076 Christian and Muslim Public Squares 128Roman Catholicism, Modernity and Religious Plurality 128Islam, Reasoned Debate, and Religious Plurality 136Part IV: Christ’s Descent into Hell 1597 Old Doctrines for New Jobs 161Introduction 161“The Descent”: Introduction to the “Circles of Hell” 165The Limbo of the Just and the Unevangelized 1678 Further into the Inferno 188Purgatory and the Non-Christian 188The Children’s Limbo 194The Descent into Hell 201Bibliography 212Subject Index 225Index of Works 233