Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6 (NRSV)
Tonight at church we had another session of our Remedial Christianity course. Part of the discussion centered on the widely accepted Christian notion that the only path to God is through Jesus. But are there other paths to God?
Speaking for many (myself included), The Center for Progressive Christianity has said:
By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us.
Most Biblical scholars don’t believe that Jesus said what he is quoted to have said in John 14. The Gospel of John was written some hundred years after the death of Jesus and none of the earlier Gospel accounts suggest the kind of exclusive theology that John does here. It is highly likely that this passage is simply a theological reflection of the early Christian community rather then something that Jesus himself believed.
I’m curious. Where do readers of this blog come down on this question? Are there multiple paths to God or do only Christians have access to the divine?
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