‘OPENNESS’ TO OTHER FAITHS QUESTIONED

In this essay, we review and critique the Moyaert-D’Costa debates as a way of answering a pivotal question still very much pertinent to contemporary biblical scholarship: to what extent, if at all, can the tensive relationship between faith identity and openness to other faiths be realized. We begin by reviewing Moyaert’s initial argument that various soteriological models within the theology of religion assume this problem can and should be solved a priori through hermeneutical openness. The model of comparative theology, on the other hand, questions this a priori assumption that hermeneutical openness is the precondition for soteriological openness