B
Bubba_Switzler
Guest
Many are asking if Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
You will find one argument in the affirmative here along with many others referenced.
But I’d like to pose a more challenging question: Do Christians and Hindus worship the same God?
(Note that I am not here considering the question of salvation although I think both questions are intertwined.)
I think ‘yes’.
My argument is based on my reading of Nostra aetate which specifically names Hindus and holds that it may hold truths insofar as it does not contradict Catholicism.
More simply, we could say that virtually all peoples have sought to know God and each culture has found a way to express that yearning in it’s own imperfect manner.
We tend to think of polytheistic Hinduism as fundamentally incompatible with monotheistic Christianity but if one allows for the errors of people’s not blessed with revelation then it is certainily reasonble to view Hindu polytheism as such an error. In fact, some Hindus regard the various gods as facets of a unified deity as did some Greeks.
The bigger challenge, think, is with the notion that Hindus invented their gods. That they may have invented multiple gods rather than a single god is relatively insignificant by comparison. And here I find myself at odds with popular Christian opinion because when I read accounts from Hindus I am not given the impression that they are worshiping constructed statues but are using these physical forms in much the same way that Catholics use religious icons.
It’s impossible to know how Hindu gods came into being but it seems, to me, very unliikely to have been the product of malicious misrepresentation. Atheists are fond of presenting religion as a malicious construction designed to enslave people. In my opinion, Islam and LDS were invented but being post-Christian they are monotheistic derivatives.
What do you think?
You will find one argument in the affirmative here along with many others referenced.
But I’d like to pose a more challenging question: Do Christians and Hindus worship the same God?
(Note that I am not here considering the question of salvation although I think both questions are intertwined.)
I think ‘yes’.
My argument is based on my reading of Nostra aetate which specifically names Hindus and holds that it may hold truths insofar as it does not contradict Catholicism.
More simply, we could say that virtually all peoples have sought to know God and each culture has found a way to express that yearning in it’s own imperfect manner.
We tend to think of polytheistic Hinduism as fundamentally incompatible with monotheistic Christianity but if one allows for the errors of people’s not blessed with revelation then it is certainily reasonble to view Hindu polytheism as such an error. In fact, some Hindus regard the various gods as facets of a unified deity as did some Greeks.
The bigger challenge, think, is with the notion that Hindus invented their gods. That they may have invented multiple gods rather than a single god is relatively insignificant by comparison. And here I find myself at odds with popular Christian opinion because when I read accounts from Hindus I am not given the impression that they are worshiping constructed statues but are using these physical forms in much the same way that Catholics use religious icons.
It’s impossible to know how Hindu gods came into being but it seems, to me, very unliikely to have been the product of malicious misrepresentation. Atheists are fond of presenting religion as a malicious construction designed to enslave people. In my opinion, Islam and LDS were invented but being post-Christian they are monotheistic derivatives.
What do you think?
