Christianity and Tolerance
The Evangelicals have always maintained that God has revealed himself definitely through the Incarnation in Jesus Christ. They have always embraced the biblical stand that salvation is available only in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They maintain that if the claims of other religions contradict the teachings of the Bible, they must be rejected by a Christian as false. But today there is increasing opposition to this stand. The opposition is not on theological or philosophical grounds. Many think there is something morally blameworthy about Christian exclusivism. 1 The modern mindset is that people have different religious preferences, and instead of proselytizing, we should be tolerant of their faiths and accept them as such. All the main writers who promote pluralism and interreligious dialogue have expressed their intolerance towards continuing the exclusivist arguments in our generation. Wilfred Cantwell Smith thinks ‘exclusivism strikes more and mor