Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility

"What are Christians to make of their mission in an pluralistic world?" asks Paul F. Knitter, author of the landmark work in interfaith dialogue No Other Name? As a recognized scholar and participant in interfaith dialogue, Knitter is in a unique position to explore the key concept of what Christian mission must entail in a world that will remain a world of many religious faiths for the foreseeable future. From the first chapter of Jesus and the Other Names, which recounts his own theological and dialogical odyssey, Knitter constructs what he calls a "correlational, globally-responsible theology of religions" as a necessary correction to traditional pluralist and exclusivist approaches. By anticipating and addressing his critics - both conservative and liberal - Knitter makes a powerful argument for a reconstruction of mission faithful to the Christian imperative and dynamically attuned to the plurality of the world. Jesus and the Other Names will give pause to those who believe Christian mission can be carried on as it was in the modern era. Sure to inspire debate as well as dialogue it offers a more humble, but perhaps more "Christic", postmodern approach to mission in the new millennium that has little to do with earthly glory and nothing to do with the sense of cultural superiority that has so often - and often so tragicallyaccompanied modern missionary movements. Theologians, missiologists, Christian historians, can all benefit from its thoughtful and timely message.