Citation

Stanley T. Int. Rev. Missions 2008; 97(384‐385): 21-30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/j.1758-6631.2008.tb00624.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

How can Christian particularism be credibly discussed in postmodern culture? The answer to this question does not necessarily demand an abandonment of the particular salvific claims of the Christian tradition. This essay explores the cultural and philosophical subtext of religious pluralism in order to discuss religious particularity in a more credible way. If Christians are faithfully to articulate their own particularity, they must first seek to understand the way postmodernity's emancipatory strategies have co-opted the category of religion. Though modernity's quest for political and social emancipation is not a novel thesis, the elucidation of how emancipation in modernity has been radicalized in postmodernity offers new insight into the cultural context within which Christum traditions now find themselves. By explicating the relationship between freedom and religious pluralism in postmodernity, we can begin to see that by gaining a more thoughtful understanding of freedom we can develop more adept strategies for communicating Christian particularity. In this regard, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity may play a crucial role.