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Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, marks a key shift in the Church’s pastoral approach to the non-Christian religions, one that has raised numerous doctrinal debates on the status of these religions. Proceeding in three parts, this essay first examines the text of NA, read together with Lumen Gentium 14–16, in light of a key doctrinal question often raised by these texts: what is the salvific status of the non-Christian religions? Granted salvation occurs outside the bounds of the visible Church, does this occur through or despite these religions? Second, the essay hones in on the discussion surrounding NA’s teaching on the Jewish people, with a particular focus on the question of the status of their covenant, as too the sensitive question of mission to the Jews. Third and finally, this essay discusses NA’s teaching on Islam, the Qu’ran, and Muhammad.

This introductory chapter is structured as a discussion of four of the central empirical and analytic tendencies in the sociology of religion in the US, and as an account of what is going on at the edges where this core is being challenged. It poses a set of questions and provides a set of examples where the next generation of research might begin. What is revealed about the self, pluralism, or modernity when we look outside the United States or outside Christian settings where the center and the edges meet? What do we learn about how and where the religious is actually at work and what its role is when we unpack the assumptions about it embedded in these much used categories? What kinds of methods help bring to light these lacunae, and how do the insights they yield help us to re-center the sociology of religion? An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

This chapter analyses Norman Anderson’s contribution to the reassessment and revision of the evangelical missionary engagement with Islam in the 1950s. It focuses on his participation in multiple influential Christian missionary conferences concerned with articulating general principles to guide evangelistic outreach to Muslims and compares his theological conclusions with those of other key Christian missionary thinkers such as Kenneth Cragg. While Anderson differed with Cragg on many points, they were both attempting to help formulate a theologically grounded response to the growth of nationalist movements, the apparent revival of non-Christian religions and the decline of European imperial influence.

Only God knows God fully, and human beings can know God only to the degree that God reveals himself to them. This chapter takes up the question of what that means, especially the question of whether there is revelation by the tri-personal God among non-Christian religions. The chapter begins with a definition of revelation, then considers media and modes of revelation, the nature of revelation, and the relation of revelation to the Bible. After touching briefly on what the Bible has to say about knowledge of God outside of Israel, the chapter takes up the question of revelation in the religions.

This chapter examines the difficulties of establishing a dialogue between the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions, non-Catholic Christianity, and the modern world. It notes that dialogue, properly understood, is an excellent thing, whether carried on within the Church or between the different Christian churches or different religions. But it needs to be kept in mind that authentic dialogue is premised on truth and is directed to an increment of truth. Where the conditions are not met, true dialogue cannot occur. The chapter holds that groups that call for dialogue in order to confront the Church with inexorable demands must be met with a firm refusal. It concludes that polarization is more likely to arise when the true teaching is obscured by the indulgence of contrary opinions. The hierarchical magisterium must be vigilant to prevent and correct error in matters of doctrine.

Pascal has drawn up the blueprint for a hypothetical true religion. This would apparently require him to examine actually existing religions to see which one best matches up to it. But the Pensées discusses only one other religion in any detail: Islam (it conflates Judaism and Christianity). This apparent lacuna is discussed in the light of two accounts of a talk he gave to his friends at Port-Royal in which he set out his apologetic strategy; this is compared with the strategy he seems to be pursuing in the Pensées. In the light of this, two alternative views are set out: (i) he intended to provide a survey of world religions; (ii) he decided that this was superfluous, given the prima facie claims of Christianity.