Re: Tolerance (was: THE WORLD OF THE JINN)

Quoting Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>:

> > Well, (traditional) Christianity wouldn´t expect Muslims getting to
> > heaven.
>
> Eh?
> "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in
> the
> first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith
> of
> Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's
> judge
> on the last day."
> Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 841.
>
> I should, perhaps, make clear that the preceding paragraph has talked of
> the
> Jews and considered that "The Jewish faith........is already a response to
> God's revelation in the Old Covenant".  Thus the "also" in the first line
> above
> is to be understood as 'others besides Christians & Jews'; and the first
> place
> amongst others are the Muslims.
>
> I was under the impression that only conservative fundamentalist & some
> cults
> took such an exclusive view of Heaven as Andreas suggests. I would truly
> be sad
> to learn otherwise.
I apparently fell in the common trap of assuming what's true in my neck of the
woods is true everywhere. The Protestant churches in Sweden that I am familiar
with, or at least their more traditionally minded members, would hold that only
those who have never heard the Gospel have a chance of entering Heaven without
having accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. That would exclude most
Jews and at least a big chunk of all Muslims.

May I ask, tho, how long-standing these parts of the Catholic Catechism are? It
strikes me as, well, a bit 20th century.

                                                                   Andreas

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