Pope Francis recently was quoted as saying that all authentic religions are paths to God. He added that conflicts about “mine is true; yours is false” only produce conflicts that historically end in bloodshed. He didn’t need (and I don’t need) to belabor that final observation!
Francis was accused of being a relativist, but I think that’s not at all a fair analysis. It is a response (only one) to the question famously asked of Jesus by Pilate (John 18:37-39)—here phrased from Jesus Christ Superstar: But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We all have truths—are mine the same as yours? In responding to this, I would like to observe some comments made by CS Lewis.
In discussing the idea of “myth” (= stories told to express fundamental truth), he wrote: “…Myth itself is not merely misunderstood history…nor diabolical illusion…nor priestly lying but, at its best, a real though unfocussed gleam of divine truth falling on the human imagination. The Hebrews, like other peoples, had mythology: but as they were the chosen people so their mythology was the chosen mythology—the mythology chosen by God to be the vehicle of the earliest sacred truths…” (from Miracles).
In his earliest writing, The Pilgrim’s Regress, he makes the same point: “Child, if you will, it is mythology. It is but truth, not fact: an image, not the very real. But then it is My mythology. …this is the veil under which I have chosen to appear even from the first until now.” More like this can be found in Lewis’ essay “Myth Became Fact.”
Lewis (under the influence of friends like JRR Tolkien and Hugo Dyson) came to understand that there can be no such thing as “I’m 100% right, and everyone else is 100% wrong.” If God loves ALL creation, then God surely tries to communicate to ALL creation, and we creatures experience and interpret that communication as best we can. So there ought to be similarities in the varying myths; there ought to be similar outlines of ethical behavior standards; there ought to be shared images and stories (creation/fall; sin/punishment; redemption/reward).
In a conversation I had earlier this week, we turned to the Jesuit Fr Feeney, a famous radio evangelist who in the middle of the 20th century preached that people not in the embrace of the Catholic Church were destined for eternal punishment in hell. His theme was Extra Ecclesiam nullus salus (“Outside the [Catholic] Church there is no salvation.”). His view was formally condemned by the Holy Office, and the contrary teaching (it’s up to God, not to us!) was embraced by Vatican II in its documents Lumen Gentium (on the nature of the Church) and Unitatis Redintegratio (on ecumenical relations). Mother Teresa was of this same spirit when she was asked whether, in the course of her and her sisters’ ministry, she worked for conversions. Her reply: “Of course I do! I convert you to be a better Muslim; I convert you to be a better Hindu; I convert you to be a better Christian…”
In the 12th century, a horrible “crusade” was waged (mostly in France) against the heretical Cathars/Albigensians. In one bloody siege, an entire city’s population (of mixed Cathars and Catholics) was slaughtered—the crusaders’ mantra was: “Kill them all; God will recognize His own.” Our mantra should be “Be at peace with them all; God will recognize His own.” -Fr. David