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Jacques Dupuis: Pathfinder for our Times We do well to note the passing of great pioneers. Belgian Jesuit Jacques Dupuis died suddenly in a Rome hospital last December 28 at 81. If you carry an active interest in how the church of Christ is sorting out a major question for our age-religious pluralism-this will not be the last time you hear his name. Jacques Dupuis has been a leading pathfinder for mainline Christian thinkers in their efforts to develop a Christian theology of religious pluralism and to come to grips with the implications of the ongoing facts on the ground. To wit: When we look at the planet on which we live, we see that in India and China today there are two-billion-five-hundred-million people with a relatively tiny Christian constituency among them. If God wanted everyone to be Christian--if it were necessary--would God not make available the means? We can't help asking the theological question today: does religious pluralism have a positive meaning intended by God? Dupuis answered that question in the affirmative. He gained notoriety for his ground-breaking theological work on understanding the place of other religions in God's one economy of salvation. Dupuis spent 36 years in India before settling in to teach at Rome's flagship pontifical university, the Gregorian. He considered his long exposure to the Indian cultural and religious reality as the greatest grace he had received from God in his vocation as a theologian. In working with the three basic typologies that have characterized theological reflection in this field since 1983-exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism-Dupuis stood steadfast for the orthodox middle. Exclusivism says no salvation outside the church. Inclusivism says all can be saved, but through Christ. Pluralism says there are many paths, and none are superior; give up Jesus Christ as the unique Savior. A touchstone for Dupuis are the two axioms expressed in 1 Tim. 2:4-6 : God's will to save all, and the attribution to Christ of a pivotal role in how it will all happen. Exclusivism, said Dupuis, does not take God's will to save all seriously enough. And pluralism does not take seriously enough the central role God has accorded to Jesus Christ in God's plan for the salvation of all. Only inclusivism manages to hold the two fundamental axioms together at once. At the end of his life, in an effort to recognize more fully the "otherness" of the "other" (non-Christians), Dupuis traced out a fourth typology: inclusivist pluralism, by which he sought to recognize that other paths have authentic religious value, but he held to the conviction that the death and resurrection of Jesus are truly the cause of salvation for all. His 1997 book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism has been the object of more reviews and articles than perhaps any other since Vatican II, and has been the occasion for many Christians to wrestle with the question of God's saving plan for the entire human race. The current president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, said that this book "will probably remain for a long time the standard work of reference in this field." Dupuis explored the frontiers, the limits of prevailing views-but carefully so. He was described by his colleagues in a recently published book of essays in his honor-- In Many and Diverse Ways (Orbis, 2003)-as a painstakingly thorough thinker who balances insights from the core of tradition with an openness to the holy mystery of God's presence in the world. His writings were examined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and he was summoned to reply to their questions. He emerged from this process with a mild warning to be mindful of what officials felt were several "notable ambiguities and difficulties on important doctrinal points which could lead a reader to erroneous or harmful opinions." A year ago, while at a colloquium in New York, he said, "I can live with that; the same could be said of quite a number of other books in print as well." While the CDF requested that the text of its "Notification" be included in any subsequent editions of the book, it did not ask him to change a single line. He professes to have responded to the CDF's concerns in his most recent book Christianity and the Religions, where he avoided some earlier ambiguities and presented further data from Christian revelation and tradition to back up his positions, clarifying them further. His words in the postscript reveal his unassuming and humble nature: "I once more submit my efforts and endeavors to the consideration of my theological peers and to the judgment of the church's doctrinal authority." At a festschrift in his honor in Rome for his 80th birthday, Dupuis shared with those present that "in all sincerity, Jesus Christ has been the one passion of my life." He taught Christology for forty years, and his books reflect his abiding passion: Jesus Christ at the Encounter of World Religions. Who Do You Say I Am? An Introduction to Christology. "The mystery of Jesus Christ will always remain beyond our full
grasp," he said, "yet year after year I have tried to deepen
my comprehension of it and to share my deep conviction with the thousands
of students, both in India and in Rome, who have followed my courses.
If I have been able to share with them some of my own conviction and love
for the Lord Jesus, I will consider myself fully rewarded. I trust that
the Lord who reads the secrets of the heart will know that my intention
has only been to express to the best of my ability my deep faith in him
and my total dedication to him. May I hear him say to me: 'Well done,
good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little, I will
set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master' (Mt.25:21). "
Thomas Ryan, CSP directs the Paulist North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations in New York City. Ecumenical Trends, Vol. 34, No. 3, March 2005
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