Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has taken more positive and receptive attitudes with regard to other religious traditions, developing good relations with them, that of mutual acceptance and respect, friendly dialogue and col...
Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has taken more positive and receptive attitudes with regard to other religious traditions, developing good relations with them, that of mutual acceptance and respect, friendly dialogue and collaboration. However, these efforts of the Catholic Church to improve the relations with other religious traditions have caused not a few misunderstandings within and without the Church. The Church's open and positive attitudes in relation to other religious traditions have brought about a kind of confusion among the Christians, especially concerning their own Christian identity. Some Christians have thus considered the proclamation of the Gospel no longer as the priority of the Church's mission, and interreligious dialogue as its substitute. The present article attempts to reassure the Catholic faithful who live in today's multi-religious situations of their Christian identity. For this purpose, it first reviews the main tendencies of theology of religion developed in Christianity since the Second Vatican Council II and makes an issue of the popular perspectives of religion hidden in those tendencies. The article then examines the place of Christianity in the history of religion, and shows that Christian inclusivism is still valid in today's religious situations.