“Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians” (Second Apology, St Justin the Martyr)
On occasion, the question may be asked; if one religion is true, then why is there such a variety of opinion on which religion that is? To me this seems like a form of the Problem of Divine Hiddenness, which I have addressed in a previous article. Whilst I don’t think religious diversity can disprove any one religion, it does pose an interesting question; how do we as Orthodox Christians understand, and relate to, non-Orthodox?
There is a wide variety of opinions in every field of human enquiry, but the fact of the matter is that religious claims are of a unique nature, as there is a claim to revelation from God. A claim however, does not make something so. There are really two main reasons I can see that make religious disagreement unsurprising.
The first is our fallen rationality. Rationality is a gift from God, but after the fall of Adam, and due to our continued sinfulness, our reasoning faculties have become darkened. The second is the human tendency to conflate our experience with objective reality. To mix up the epistemological and the ontological.1 One has a fuzzy feeling in prayer and so believes that God is telling them something, or one walks into a mosque and is so struck by the beauty he converts right there and then. This is why the Orthodox tradition places great importance in common experience and common witness. With this in mind, how do should we relate to the non-Orthodox? Well the solution lies between two extremes.
Two Extremes
The first is that of religious indifferentism, perennialism, or syncretism. It is to say that ultimately none of it matters, and that it’s perfectly okay to be whatever religion you like. This view is untenable however, for two main reasons. Firstly, religions disagree with each other a number of different topics. To say that one can synthesise the entirety of world religions is coming from a place of ignorance. You can’t synthesise the proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God, with the Muslim belief that He is merely a prophet.2 Secondly, what one believes really matters, and can make a real difference to how one behaves. If for example, one believed that their friend was a compulsive liar, there would be nothing that friend could say that would change your mind. Additionally, there exist “faith healers” who refuse people proper medical care because they believe they are the only source of healing. We can’t therefore imagine that all religions are the same.
The second is to say that the Orthodox Church is the only possible source of truth, and that everyone outside it is equally lost in a sea of equally wrong and heretical religions. This rigorist and exclusionist approach ultimately has as it’s presupposition a certain level of pride. It imagines that the truth is something to be held, something to be contained, something that can be easily and clearly explained and delineated. But that is not so. Truth is not an abstract idea. Truth is the person of Jesus Christ. Although we can, and we must say, that Jesus is most fully present in the Orthodox Church, to then say He is therefore inaccessible to everyone else, is a legalistic and uncharitable non-sequitur.
The Solution
I think the solutions lies in the concept of religious hierarchy. In the Nicene Creed we say that we believe “In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church”.3 There is therefore, only one true Church, that has the fullness of faith, and true doctrine and practice. That is the Orthodox Church. There can be no other. But, that does not mean that everything outside the Orthodox Church is indistinguishable darkness. We must be able to admit that we are quite close to our Roman Catholic brethren, and even closer to the Oriental Orthodox. When considering our relationship to non-Orthodox Christians, we hold in tension two realities summed up in the phrase “separated brethren”. Fr Georges Florovsky says this;
“In the phrase “separated brethren,” the adjective weighs as heavily as the noun.” (Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for Theological Education, Fr Matthew Baker and Seraphim Danckaert)
To emphasise the separation is to fall into sectarianism and self-referential navel gazing, but to emphasise the brotherhood, is to risk compromising truth or ignoring differences for the sake of unity.
When considering our relationship with non-Christians the issue becomes increasingly complex. We must ultimately see religions as within a hierarchy. Orthodox Christianity is at the top, and everything else is flowing out from it. Anything that is true, good, and beautiful in another religion, is ultimately a type or reflection of Christ, the ultimate Truth. Hierarchy in the Orthodox tradition is not one of domination, but one that places things within a proper order and context, aiming it towards something higher.4 We should therefore be comfortable recognising the true aspects of other religious traditions, whilst also recognising where they may have gone wrong. We must avoid subjectivity, but must also avoid using objectivity as a weapon to hit people over the head with.
What Does This Mean for Salvation?
The question of salvation is really where the rubber meets the road with religious disagreement. After all, if there are no stakes, then none of this really matters. Again, we must avoid two extremes.
The first is universalism, which has been condemned by the Orthodox Church.5 This is the belief that ultimately, everyone must be saved. This however, runs in contradistinction to the witness of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Ecumenical Councils. We must therefore rule it out.6 The second is to say that only those within the canonical boundaries of the Orthodox Church can attain salvation. This however, would be unjust, and like the first, is a claim the weight of which the witness of tradition cannot bear (Romans 2:6-16). The late Metropolitan Kallistos Ware wrote;
"Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. All the categorical strength and point of this aphorism lies in its tautology. Outside the Church there is no salvation, because salvation is the Church" (G. Florovsky, "Sobornost: the Catholicity of the Church", in The Church of God, p. 53). Does it therefore follow that anyone who is not visibly within the Church is necessarily damned? Of course not; still less does it follow that everyone who is visibly within the Church is necessarily saved. As Augustine wisely remarked: "How many sheep there are without, how many wolves within!" (Homilies on John, 45, 12) While there is no division between a "visible" and an "invisible Church", yet there may be members of the Church who are not visibly such, but whose membership is known to God alone. If anyone is saved, he must in some sense be a member of the Church; in what sense, we cannot always say.” (The Orthodox Church)
We therefore can’t put absolute salvific weight on our choice of religion. We can’t say that salvation is merely a matter of believing the right things. That is an enlightenment idea. Ultimately, God won’t punish us for making a mistake in reasoning. After all, two people of equal intelligence can look at the same set of data and come to two different conclusions. Sometimes people just make mistakes, and often, people follow the religion of their parents and the surrounding culture. I don’t think God is trying to catch people out. This is not to say that one’s religion doesn’t matter though.
We must say that salvation is uniquely found within the Orthodox Church, through which Christ is made manifest to the world, as a continuation of the incarnation. We have the tools of salvation; correct doctrine, right worship, the sacraments, grace, the saints etc. Those outside the Orthodox Church are at risk. The inner transformation of the human person in Christ, or theosis,7 takes real work, and doing work without tools is even harder. However, to say that all non-Orthodox are by default condemned, is absolute nonsense. There’s no theology test to get into heaven. If there was, most of us would fail. We are judged not by what we believe, but by what we do. Doctrine matters in so far as it effects what we do. If we make Orthodoxy into a correctness cult, we are sorely missing the point. All people, regardless of their religion or personal beliefs, will be judged by their works. Nowhere is this clearer in the Gospel of Matthew;
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
(Matthew 25:31-46, NIV)
Conclusion
Religious disagreement shouldn’t really trouble us much. Pray that everyone be converted. Talk to people about Christ. Share the Gospel. But despair not! Christians are meant to be a beacon of light and of hope in the resurrection, not a moralising sect preaching damnation to those outside it’s boundaries.
NB: Everything expressed in this article is merely my opinion, and should not be taken as authoritative in any way. I am not a bishop, nor a saint, nor an academic, nor a spiritual father. If anything I say contradicts the teachings of your bishop, ignore me, and follow him. Additionally, all my articles are living documents, and so may be updated or refined over time, as I learn more, or discover better ways of articulating my points.
Critical realism is a good epistemological framework through which to understand this issue. For a brief introduction, see this article.
Jesus in Islam, Wikipedia.
Nicene Creed, The Orthodox Faith, Fr Thomas Hopko.
What is Hierarchy?, Jonathan Pageau.
For a thorough and accessible critique of universalism, I would recommend the episode of the Lord of Spirits podcast entitled “What in Tarnation?”.