Programme 6: One Way System?

Priestland s Progress

Gerald’s experience in India convinces him of the existence of many ways to God. It seemed to be appallingly arrogant to claim that Christianity offered the one true way. Why should one man at one place in one time have the powers Jesus had? This is the Scandal of Particularity. Why should the Jews be singled out as God’s special people? Should we blow the whistle on God and shout “foul”!?

Questions:

1. A visiting Chinese stops you in the street and says, “You look like a Christian: What’s different about the Christian faith? What do you know about other faiths . . . does it matter?” a) How and why would you try to avoid answering? b) More seriously, what would you say in trying to answer?
2. What did Jesus mean when He said, “No‑one comes to the Father but by me”?
3. Gerald wonders if he is a Christian. Who decides? And how?

“Christian unity in itself is only part of a deeper unity of all faiths, and that is only part of a deeper unity of all humankind, and so the ecumenical stance is a stance of humanity, not just a stance for Christians to come together… it’s about humankind coming together in Christ.”

Ivor Smith‑Cameron