One of the hallmarks of the post-modern era (late 20th-century to present) is broad skepticism, subjectivity or relativism about established ideologies, absolute truths, and grand narratives. Post-modernism rejects universal certainty, and therefore universal truth.
source: examples.com
As you might expect, this has consequences for organizing and sustaining societies, cultures and values.
Postmodernism hinders cultural and value transmission by rejecting objective truths, universal values, and metanarratives. After all, how can a culture sustain itself if it does not know what it values and believes?
How do we create laws everyone will agree are just if moral relativism and individual construction of reality prevails?
If our values are individual, and not collective, how do we maintain societal cohesion? If all traditional structures are “merely” based on power, what stops us from acting as though power is what matters, so we can impose our values on everyone else?
If universal right and wrong does not exist, then common moral codes are impossible. And if all cultures, traditions, and views are equally valid or equally arbitrary, how do we know what is worth transmitting to the next generation?
One issue some of us might have, living in a global context where rival truth claims exist, is how to square what one believes to be “universal truth” with the rival truth claims of other religions.
For any adherent of any religion that is presented as “public truth,” it is all too easy to fall into extremes: “all religions are the same” or “there is no universal truth.”
Either position does no justice to any religious faith that actually believes what it teaches. If everything is true then nothing really is true (it is all opinion).
And if one also believes humans have the right to believe as they see fit, then there also is no way to ascertain public and universal truth as might be true for mathematical or scientific truth, for example.
But inter-religious dialogue can be helpful, particularly if it allows discovery of shared values that can be implemented in the real world, together (caring for the vulnerable, for example).
As a Catholic, I am required to assert certain universal truth claims. That does not mean I cannot see and acknowledge truth in any other religious system. The Catholic way of understanding this is that all genuine truth is God’s truth, no matter where it is found or how it is expressed.
And since Catholic theology is profoundly “both/and” rather than “either/or,” it is allowable to maintain that “there is no salvation outside the church” as well as acknowledging that salvation is God’s choice, not mine; not the church’s. God alone does the saving, and may act in any way desired, including saving any human, any time, for any reason.
A Catholic way of expressing this is that there is a “normal” means and an “extraordinary” means.
Aspect | Ordinary / “Normal” Means (Christ and the Church) | God’s Salvific Action Regarding Non‑Christians |
Basic principle | “Outside the Church there is no salvation” understood positively as “all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body.” | “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart… may achieve eternal salvation.” Catechism of the Catholic Church |
Role of Christ | Jesus Christ is the unique mediator and universal Savior; his paschal mystery is the one source of salvation for all people.vatican | The same unique mediation of Christ reaches non‑Christians in ways known to God alone; no one is saved apart from his grace, even if they do not know him explicitly. Ctholic Culture |
Role of the Church | The Church is the “universal sacrament of salvation,” necessary as the concrete place where Christ’s saving grace is fully present and ordinarily communicated (Word, sacraments, hierarchy, charity). | All who are saved are related to the Church: some fully (baptized Catholics), others imperfectly or implicitly ordered to her through desire, conscience, and grace, even if they are not visibly members. |
Membership / incorporation | Full incorporation: baptism, profession of faith, participation in sacraments, and remaining in charity; other Christians are in “imperfect communion” but truly joined to Christ and the Church. | Non‑Christians can be “ordered” to the People of God when they sincerely seek God and follow conscience, responding to grace; elements of truth and holiness in their traditions can be instruments God uses. |
Means of grace | Explicit faith in Christ, sacramental baptism, Eucharist, confession, and other sacraments as the ordinary channels of sanctifying grace. | Baptism of desire (explicit or implicit), invincible ignorance, and sincere moral and religious seeking can be occasions where God communicates salvific grace outside visible sacramental structures. |
Other religions | Contain “elements of sanctification and truth” that derive from and point toward the fullness of Catholicism; they can be used by God as preparatory or partial means but lack the fullness of saving means present in the Church. | Do not constitute autonomous, parallel paths to God; any salvation of their adherents is still through Christ and in some mysterious relation to the Church, not through the religion as such considered apart from Christ. |
Mission / evangelization | Evangelization and incorporation into the Church remain a strict duty, because the Church possesses the fullness of the means of salvation and explicit faith and sacraments give greater assurance and clarity. | Recognition of God’s universal salvific will and the real possibility of salvation for non‑Christians fosters respect, dialogue, and hope, without diminishing the call to invite all into full communion. |
Catholic teaching since Lumen Gentium (1964) holds together two truths: salvation is normally given through Christ and his Church, and yet God can save non‑Christians in ways known only to him, always through Christ’s grace and in relation (ordered) to the Church.
Granted, all this is “in the weeds” for most people. But for some of us, it is a necessary reflection so that one can simultaneously believe a particular version of universal truth without being obnoxious and triumphalistic in a world with lots of other religions that also make their own universal truth claims.
In other words, “just tell the story.” Impose the belief on nobody. Listen and share respectfully, without abandoning one’s own view of truth claims or defaulting to the “all religions are the same” or are “equally true” stances. I’ll tell you my story; you tell me yours.
Dimension | Post–Vatican II Catholic view (Lumen Gentium, Dominus Iesus) | Bishop Leslie Newbegin’s approach to other faiths (Church of South India) |
Truth claim of the gospel | Christ and the Church are necessary; the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, and all salvation comes from Christ through his Body. Vatican | The gospel is a public truth about reality, not private opinion; it lays claim to every culture and religious system. |
View of other religions | Contain “elements of sanctification and truth” but are not parallel salvific systems; any salvation of their adherents is still through Christ and in relation to the Church. Catholic Culture | Other religions can bear real insight and prepare the heart, but cannot be affirmed as alternative ways of salvation; they must be engaged critically in light of the gospel. Modern Reformation |
God’s salvific will | God sincerely wills all to be saved; non‑Christians who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ or the Church can be saved if they seek God and follow conscience, by grace. Catechism of the Catholic Church | Newbigin allows for the possibility that non‑Christians may be saved, but insists that any salvation is still through the one revelation in Christ, not through their religion as such. |
Mode of presentation | Proclaim Christ clearly, invite to full communion with the Church, yet respect conscience and affirm truth wherever found; use dialogue and witness, not coercion. Catechism of the Catholic Church | Practice “missionary encounter”: present the gospel story, invite others to test and inhabit it, engage in honest dialogue where the gospel and other faiths mutually expose their claims. The Gospel Coalition |
Role of the Church/community | Church is the ordinary locus of grace (Word, sacraments, charity); her life is meant to be a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and unity of the human race. Catechism | The local church as a distinctive, sacrificial community is the primary apologetic; its shared life makes the truth of the gospel credible in a pluralist society. The Network |
That won’t eliminate the hard problem that universal truth claims do differ.
It will eliminate my own discomfort about having a particular view of universal truth that might superficially seem harsh and unforgiving for those who do not share the beliefs.
One way of expressing the challenge is to propose, not impose. I’ll tell you my story; you tell me yours.
That doesn’t “solve” the problem of post-modern skepticism. We’ll still have to make choices if we wish cultures, societies and values to continue for another generation.
It’s a bit like grammar. There are many ways to structure the rules of any language. In a sense, the rules are arbitrary. But they are useful. The rules allow us to communicate.
We needn’t claim about our grammar that “this way is the only way.” That’s never true. But the shared framework makes communication at sophisticated levels possible.
For language and culture, we still must choose. Subjectivism really doesn’t work.
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