During the month of November, we’ve been asking the question of whether or not all religions – specifically the faiths of Jews, Muslims, and Christians – pray to the same God. We began with Robert Reilly’s great introduction (watch video here), and continued with a study on the life of Abraham (video posted here).
We’re concluding this topic with a two-part series on the revelation of the Trinity in the Old Testament – we hope you can join us this Thursday! Full details can be found below, and you can watch last week’s presentation here.
Providentially, Pope Benedict XVI issued his first major address since his retirement (H/T Rorate Caeli), and has some amazing insight on this very topic:
Today many have the idea, in effect, that religions should respect each other, and, in dialogue with each other, become a common force for peace. In this way of thinking, most times there is a presupposition that the various religions are variants of one and the same reality; that “religion” is a category common to all, which assumes different forms according to different cultures, but expresses, however, one and the same reality. The question of truth, which at the beginning of Christianity moved Christians more than anything else, in this mode of thinking is placed within parentheses. It presupposes that the authentic truth about God, in the last analysis, is unobtainable, and that at best one can make present what is ineffable only with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems convincing and useful for peace among the religions of the world.
This is, however, lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and seriousness, if everything is reduced to symbols that are at the end interchangeable, capable of referring only from afar to the inaccessible mystery of the divine.
What perfect timing that he is addressing this very issue just as we are studying the exact same question! I would encourage you to read this beautiful address by Pope Benedict XVI – please click here for the link.