An Appraisal of Karl Rahner's Anonymous Christianity: An Evolving Philosophy of Dialogue As a Tool For Peaceful Coexistence in a Pluralistic Nigeria
This paper is an assessment of Karl Rahner's Anonymous Christianity: An Evolving Philosophy of Dialogue as a Tool for Peaceful Co-existence in a Pluralistic Nigerian society. Using qualitative approach, the paper adopted historical, descriptive and analytic methods to examine the problem of religious crisis and dialogue in Nigeria within the framework of Karl Rahner's theory of Anonymous Christian. The theory affirms the fatherhood of God who communicates himself in fullness by sending Jesus Christ, his son into the world; the absolute saviour is the originator of dialogue. The study also found out that, the anonymous Christian of Karl Rahner's gives inclusion to other religions based on the fact that they are pre-Christian channels of grace and therefore contain “rays of lights” and as such, we consider the common values between Muslims and Christians in order to foster a mutual understanding among the adherents of these two religions. The study acknowledged that, dialogue begins with Jesus Christ because, he is the absolute communication of God the father and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ has also made salvation universal and particular because it takes place within a particular time, history and culture. The study recommendation that, the inclusive nature of the father's loves in Jesus Christ means all people of goodwill are included in the salvation brought by Christ and therein lays the need for dialogue irrespective of our religion, culture and tradition. The write up concluded that, the bond of oneness we shared as members of one God and one nation should be respected. Both Christians and followers of other religions have values that can bring them together and ensure peaceful co-existence. Religious education with particular reference to the proper teaching of religious dialogue in school beginning at the primary to tertiary level should be implemented and encouraged thereby enhancing mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence instead of fighting, killing and destruction.
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