Nguyen, Thi Tuong Oanh, Sr. Maria

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PhD Title

A Biblical-Exegetical Examination of the Appeal to the Trinity in the Contemporary Theology of Religions: The Case of Jacques Dupuis and Gavin D’Costa

Short Description

In the contemporary Catholic theology of religions we are confronted with the question of whether other (non-Christian) religions have any salvific status, and thus whether religious plurality is to be taken merely as de facto, or, as principally willed by God (de iure) as such. If the latter is the case, how can it be legitimated from a Christian point of view? In order to resolve this question there have been, during the last decades several attempts from within the inclusivist camp to develop a Trinitarian model in order to legitimate religious pluralism, either de iure or de facto. Representatives of these two approaches are Jacques Dupuis who defends for religious pluralism de iure and Gavin D’Costa who defends for religious pluralism de facto. Both show the same concern to take religious plurality seriously but each has different presuppositions and outcomes. Both rely on a biblical basis to found their Trinitarian models, but each displays a different understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity.

The aim of our research therefore, is to examine the biblical foundations of their appeal to the Trinity in legitimating religious pluralism either de iure or de facto. The content of our dissertation will consist of three chapters. In the first chapter, the Trinitarian models of the two authors will be presented and compared. The second chapter will be dedicated to an inventory into and a biblical-exegetical examination of the scriptural use of both authors in their appeal to the Trinity. In the concluding final chapter a conclusion will be drawn from the result of the former chapters with regard to the question whether and to what extend the appeals to the Trinity of both authors are legitimate from the biblical point of view. Next to this, we will attempt to contribute a proposal for a holistic biblical basis for the appeal to the Trinity in the theology of religions, based on the exegetical and theological result gained from our inquiry.

Contact Information

Nguyen Thi Tuong Oanh
Email: thituongoanh.nguyen@student.kuleuven.be
Research unit: Systematic theology

Publications