Abstract

Born in the midst of religious pluralism and philosophical intellectualism, the early church successfully sought to proclaim the biblical message, i.e, Jesus Christ the only Savior of the world. The church had contextually communicated the Gospel to the pluralistic world. ;Recently, the terms "Exclusivism", "Inclusivism" and "Pluralism" have become a type in the discussion of the relationship between Christianity and other religions in a pluralistic society. Every religion claims to be unique, universal, and absolute for its own belief. Christian understanding of other religions in a pluralistic world has proposed various paradigms which contain many insights but have to be evaluated in the light of theological criteria. What is at stake is that the uniqueness, absoluteness, and universality of the Christian faith becomes less emphasized. In light of this, how to present Christ's finality and universality to people of other faiths is essential. ;Built on Wolfhart Pannenberg's doctrine of revelation which upholds the absoluteness of Christ and his uniqueness, this dissertation reaffirms the absoluteness of Christ and his uniqueness, decisiveness and finality. It accepts the revelation of God in other religions and culture as a part of God's whole universal revelation and his work in history. The role of religions thus is to prepare the way to the gospel. ;This dissertation arrives at its conclusion by proposing a new type called "Conclusivism." Its aim is to bring the church back to the position of the early church in dealing with religious pluralism by standing on the Christology decreed at the Chalcedonian Council. This position provides the rationale and states the necessity for the proclamation of Christ's event as the final revelation in the midst of today's context of religious pluralism. By confessing the uniqueness and finality of the Christ event, Conclusivism should not be seen as Exclusivism. Rather, it affirms the unique truth of the revelation in Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings. It agrees with Inclusivism and Pluralism in admitting the role and value of God's genuine revelation in other religions. It is open to learning from other religions and cultures. Moreover, it makes the Christian's faith more solid, relevant and credible insofar as the uniqueness, absoluteness, finality, unsurpassibility and decisiveness of the Christ-event is affirmed