The Issue Today-- James A. Sanders, Paul E. Capetz
We leave to Jews and Muslims to point out where synagogue and mosque fall shofrt of belief in One God of all. The issue here is whether Christianity can be redeemed, or whether it has become so exclusivist that it is lost in its hundreds of different views of its own identity, each claiming to be the right one. It may be that this is one of the reasons God raised up Islam and many other ancient religions, and has preserved Judaism, so that Christians may be reminded of what Jesus himself taught, especially about the One God of All.
Christians must ask themselves:
* Whether their claims to exclusivity do not belie belief in One God;
* Whether they understand the vast difference between henotheism and true monotheism;
* Whether any one view of Christ is the only true one;
* Why churches tend still to be the most segregated institutions in the culture;
* Why "the other" is often called evil;
* WHY Christians often find war and killing others noble;
* Why the churches tend to uphold whatever culture they find themselves in and sponsor the status quo even when it is oppressive and demonizes those the culture excludes.
Have Christians made distortions of Christ into an idol, in effect displacing God?
Indeed, would a theocentric Christology not be more responsible to Scripture and sound theology than the traditional Christocentric theology?
What would a One-God centered understanding of the Trinity, of Christ and the Holy Spirit truly mean?
The ancient cry, Credo in Unum Deum, has become largely meaningless to those who claim to be Christian today. These are a few of the questions that must be addressed if the church and the earth as we know them are to survive through the twenty-first century
Credo in Unum Deum: A Challenge
Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology, Vol. 39, No. 4, 204-213 (2009)
