Christians have consciously or unconsciously lived in a religiously plural world. One of the characteristics in these times is that the pluralization is prominent in a value and culture. However the problem of religious pluralism does not simply stay ...
Christians have consciously or unconsciously lived in a religiously plural world. One of the characteristics in these times is that the pluralization is prominent in a value and culture. However the problem of religious pluralism does not simply stay with the value-neutral concept that designates the situation that various religions coexist realistically. In a position that individual religions can not exclude universal truth exclusively, religious pluralism has caused great confusion in Christianity that proclaim absolute truth. But this plural thinking might be in danger of learning toward relativism, skepticism and syncretism. In this situation, some pluralist suggests a new pattern, "polycentric religious pluralism" admits the state of religious pluralism but maintains essence of christianity. This starts from the fact that each religion is not identical but different each other and emphasizes religious diversity and pluralism. But this plural position has many problems, too. Now Reformed theology(Tolerance) needs to positively practise the encounter with religious pluralism, instead of remaining in isolation in an exclusivistic attitude.
This thesis researches religious pluralism, particularly focusing on the "polycentric religious pluralism" and "Reformed Tolerance". Therefore I am dealing with 5 subjects in our Polycentric Religious Pluralism and Reformed Tolerance research(What's Theology of Religions, What's Types of Religious Pluralism, Missiological Criticism and Evidentialist Approach, Polycentric Religious Pluralism and Reformed Criticism, Reformed Tolerance about the religious pluralism). First of all, the second chapter studies generally about a Christian theology of religions in the context of religious plurality. It examines the definition and it’s three major categories of the Christian theology of religions, according to Allan Race, exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism. In the third chapter of this thesis, I examine religious pluralism types of three Classificaion models : Evolution, Perry-Schmidt-Leukel, In Chul Han. In chapter 4, I describe about two Criticism types of conservative circle : Missiological Criticism by Ho-Jin Jun and Evidentialist Approach by R. Douglas Geivett & W. Gary Phillip. Chapter V, I analyze and introduce Polycentric Religious Pluralism and Reformed Criticism. It reveals the philosophical and logical errors of the pluralists. Because the arguments of pluralists are progressed on the different philosophical horizon from the Reformed Theology, it will have to be made to practice the transcendental critique to point out clearly the problems of the horizons of their discussion. In conclusion, I suggest "Reformed Tolerance" about the religious pluralism, and analyze two faces of Tolerance/exclusion(theoretical and practical).