Anonymous Christian is the controversial notion introduced by the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner (1904–1984) that declares that people who have never heard the Christian Gospel might be saved through Christ. Non-Christians could have "in basic orientation and fundamental decision," Rahner wrote, "accepted the salvific grace of God, through Christ, although may never have heard of the Christian revelation."
Traditionally, Christians engaged interreligious dialogue with the concern that open dialogue was a betrayal of Christian principles. The notion of inclusivism, for which Rahner's Anonymous Christian is the principal Christian model, is "the most popular of interreligious postures."
Read more about Anonymous Christian: Karl Rahner, Vatican II and Catholicism, Pope Benedict XVI, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the words anonymous and/or christian:
“Men, my dear, are very queer animals, a mixture of horse- nervousness, ass-stubbornness, and camel-malice—with an angel bobbing about unexpectedly like the apple in the posset, and when they can do exactly as they please, they are very hard to drive.
Oh, England. Sick in head and sick in heart,
Sick in whole and every part,
And yet sicker thou art still
For thinking that thou art not ill.”
—Thomas Henry Anonymous (1825–95)
“On principle I dislike an oath which requires a man to swear he has not done wrong. It rejects the Christian principle of forgiveness on terms of repentance. I think it is enough if the man does no wrong hereafter.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)