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

On 17 Oct 2003 at 21:15, Ray Brown wrote:

> On Thursday, October 16, 2003, at 11:05 , Paul Bennett wrote:
> [snip]
>
> > Well, as I understand it, each stage of (at least the one main branch of)
> >  the Judeo-
> > Christian mythos is inclusive of the previous stages, but believes that
> > the essential
> > message of God's word has been misinterpreted or forgotten by the previous
> > stages.
> >
> > Thus, in the hierarchy
> >
> > Jews --> Christians --> Muslims --> Sikhs
>
> Too simplistic, Paul. Where, for example, do the Druze and the Baha'i
> faith fit into
> this supposed hierarchy?
I did say "the main branch of the Judeo-Christian mythos".

> > At any point on the line, the people at that point believe that
> > themselves and the
> > people to the left of them are allowed into heaven, and that people to
> > the right of
> > them are heretics.
>
> Again, too simplistic - see my reply to Andreas above. And being a heretic
> is not
> automatic condemnation.  If one is born into heresy and knows nothing else,
>   it would
> be an unjust Deity that denied such a person heaven.
I did not state that heresy per se was an automatic bar from paradise
-- although some fractional religions, largely of the fundamentalist
and cultic ilk, do assert that salvation is only possible for those
heretics who have deliberately converted (or "have been saved"), as
you stated. Admittedly, I did imply it, and for that I am sorry.

> "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of
> Christ or his Church,
> but who, nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace,
> try in their
> action to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their
> conscience -
> these too may achieve eternal salvation."
> Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 847.
The Catholic faith is somewhat of a side-branch on my diagram above,
although the above snippet tends to align with the basic salvationary
premise of the Books (be that the Torah, the New Testament, the Quran
or teh Adi Granth).

> Seems to me the silent majority of ordinary, faithful Muslim and Sikhs fit
> the above
> description, even tho they are on the right.
There are relevant scriptures, but I don't have them immmediately
available in my head and I suspect that to locate, collate and
compare them on paper would be quite a task. My gut tells me that the
various Books contain a fair amount of contradictory information
about the exact nature of the pre-paradise "clearing procedure" for
heretical religions. For example, in Christianity it is stated (in
slight paraphrase) that the only way into the kingdom of heaven is by
accepting Jesus Christ as your personal lord and saviour. This does
not entirely jive with the section of Catholic catechism you quoted
above.





Paul