Review of Winfried Corduan's "A Tapestry of Faiths"

Since I tend to have 3 to 6 books going at a time, to complete one book inside a week usually means it wouldn't let go of my attention. Winfried Corduan's book, A Tapestry of Faiths, goes on a short list of books with that distinction.

I bought it to prepare for a special emphasis we're planning at our church this spring.  The working title of the emphasis is "The Neighboring Faiths Interviews." I'm in conversation with an imam, a rabbi, a Hindu priest, and a Buddhist monk, with plans to have each of them join me for a 60-90 minute interview on a series of Sunday evenings. 

Corduan is an "exclusivist" in the the interfaith conversation (as any evangelical must be). That is, God can only be known through Jesus Christ. But Corduan argues that we should not be surprised to find a measure of truth in other religions. While there are things that can be known only through the "special revelation" of God's inspired Word and illuminating Spirit, there are things that can be known through the "general revelation" of nature and the human condition. This includes a sense of holiness (what Rudoph Otto called the "numinous") and the recurrent themes in the mythology and symbolism of people in various times and cultures (what Carl Jung referred to as "archetypes").  Since God made us for himself, Corduan argues, we would be surprised if this was not the case.

When it comes to interaction with those from other faiths, Corduan wants the Christian reader to be aware of two strands that can mutually strengthen and reinforce each other: "the assurance that Christians have in their hope" and "the ways in which they interact with the world of other religions." He says: "Hope grows in the process of interaction, and the interaction becomes more meaningful as the hope is firmer."

This is not an easy book to work through, since it deals with the kind of complex issues that interfaith conversations raise. But Corduan's writing style helps the reader work through the complexity.

I am in contact with Dr. Corduan and plan on a couple of phone interviews as I get ready for my "Neighboring Faiths Interviews."  (The working title for my project comes from another Corduan book I'm reading, Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction of World Religions). 

Check out his website.