CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Autobiographical prologue
Abbreviations
1. The task before us: Christians in a world of the religious Other
Introduction
1. Describing the tasks of an evangelical theology of religions
2. Delineating the task of this study
3. Declaring the thesis and method of this study
a. My theology of religions stated
b. The elephant speaks: theological method
Conclusion
2. Homo adorans: Reformed theological foundations for interpreting the religious Other
Introduction: on not reinventing the religious wheel
1. Creation: the Creator-creature distinction and the imago Dei
a. And God said... and it was so': the independent creator
b. 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...': the dependent creation
i. The revelational
ii. The relational
iii. The representational
2. The fall: de-creation and 'false faith'
3. The promise of redemption: antithesis and restraint
a. The pronouncement of salvation: the protoevangelium
b. The pronouncement of separation: the doctrine of 'the antithesis'
c. The pronouncement of long-suffering: the doctrine of common grace
Conclusion: Homo adorans - a complex anthropological mix
3. The curious case of remnantal revelation: gleanings on the origins of the religious Other
Introduction
1. The case for remnantal revelation
a. Remnantal revelation in Van Til
b. Remnantal revelation in H. Bavinck
2. Support for remnantal revelation
a. The prisca theologia and comparative mythology
b. Wilhelm Schmidt and original monotheism
Summary
4. Towards a religio-genesis: Babel and the nations in the development of the religious Other
Introduction
1. Babel and the origin of religious diversity
a. Reformed historical precedent
i. Franz Delitzsch
ii. C. A. Auberlen
iii. Robert Candlish
iv. H. Bavinck
b. Contemporary treatments
i. Meredith Kline
ii. James Jordan
iii. James Montgomery Boice
2. Evaluation and synthesis
Conclusion
5. No other gods before me: the idolatry of the religious
Other in the Old Testament
Introduction
1. An open-and-shut case or an open verdict? Pluralisms and presuppositions in the study of Old Testament attitudes to the religious Other
a. Enlightenment monotheism versus Yahweh's transcendent uniqueness
b. Prescription versus description
c. Divine exploitation without divine assent
d. Religious devolution versus evolution
2. Problems and perplexities in Old Testament attitudes towards the religious Other
a. Ecumenical bonhomie? The 'problem' of patriarchal religion
b. Interim acceptance?
c. Evaluation and critique
i. Promise and fulfilment
ii. Morality and worship
iii. The divine name
iv. Melchizedek
v. Interim acceptance
3. Idolatry as the primary Old Testament categorization of the religious Other
a. The composition of idols and idolatry
b. The characteristics of idols and idolatry
c. The consequences of idols and idolatry
Conclusion
6. The perilous exchange: the idolatry of the religious
Other in the New Testament
Introduction
1. Jesus Christ our Lord
a. Jesus' transcendent uniqueness
b. 'False faith' in the Son
c. The character of Jesus' work
d. The necessity of faith in Christ for salvation
e. The Logos, and the 'times of ignorance'
i. John 1:9
ii. The 'times of ignorance'
2. The perilous exchange
a. A clear and present revelation
b. The 'perilous exchange'
i. Suppression
ii. Substitution
Conclusion
7. 'For their rock is not as our rock': the gospel as the 'subversive fulfilment' of the religious Other Introduction
1. Defining other religions as idolatrous interprets them as antithetical distortions of divine revelation
2. Defining other religions as idolatrous acknowledges their pseudo-similarity to, and false counterfeiting of, true divine revelation
a. 'Imaginal' revelation
i. The object of idolatrous religion
ii. The structure of idolatrous religion
iii. The content of idolatrous religion
b. 'Remnantal' revelation
c. 'Influental' revelation
d. 'Demonic' revelation
Summary
3. Defining other religions as idolatrous recognizes the reality of demonic deception behind them
a. The 'dark margin'
b. Demonic identity and co-option
4. Defining the other religions as idolatrous interprets the gospel of Jesus Christ as being their 'subversive fulfilment'
a. The gospel as subversion
b. The gospel as fulfilment
Conclusion
8. 'A light for the Gentiles': missiological implications of 'subversive fulfilment'
Introduction
1. A brief mission statement
a. The motivation for mission
b. The comprehensiveness of mission
c. The ultimacy of evangelism in mission
d. The elenctic task of mission
2. The nature of contextualization in mission
a. Missional theologizing
b. Ecclesial theologizing
3. Paul at the Areopagus: subversive fulfilment' par excellence
4. A contemporary example of subversive fulfilment (Sunni Islam)
Conclusion: the church as a subversive-fulfilment community
9. 'But I have raised you up for this very purpose...': pastoral perspectives on the purpose of the religious Other
Introduction
1. For God: glory in power, judgment and mercy
a. The paradigm of the exodus
i. Glory in judgment
ii. Glory in salvation
b. The pattern of redemptive history
i. Old Testament
ii. New Testament
2. For God's world: divine restraint through religious cohesion and confusion
3. For God's people: preparatio and possessio, didactic and disciplinary
a. Preparatio and possessio
i. Missional theologizing
ii. Ecclesial theologizing
b. Didactic and disciplinary
i. Didactic
ii. Disciplinary
Conclusion
Conclusion
1. Looking backwards
2. Looking forwards
Bibliography
Index of Scripture references
Index of authors
Index of subjects
