Is Christianity the Absolute Religion?
Hegel was the first prominent person to highlight the absolu teness of the Christian message as part of his philosophy of religion and he refers to Christianity as the “absolute religion” in many places in his writings. 1 Martin Luther called Christianity the true and only religion. The traditional Protestant understanding of this concept is based on John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me.” It was Ephraim Lenning who raised a number of doubts about the absoluteness of Christi a nity and its superiority over other religions. According to him, all religions may be true, or all may be false. But the proof is millions of years away. He talked about the “ugly b a d ditch” Christianity faces with history on one side and the absolute on the other. He said Christianity should be judged not by a historical apologetics, but by an experience of the heart. Kierkegaard’s ...