De waarheid, absoluutheid en eigenheid van het christendom volgens Nederlandse protestanten

Samenvatting

This article describes and analyses the views of 20th Dutch Protestant scholars of religious studies, systematic theology and missiology on ‘the absoluteness of Christianity/the revelation of God in Jesus Christ’, and their response to Western relativism rooted in the Enlightenment. Previous adherence to the Augustinian concept of Christianity as ‘the true religion,’ was exchanged for new ideas and positions that took them back to the essentials behind the concept of ‘the absoluteness of Christianity;’ to rethinking ‘absoluteness;’ ‘the non-absoluteness of Christianity;’ and alternative terms such as ‘finality,’ ‘originality,’ and ‘normativity.’ The concept of ‘the absoluteness of Christianity’ may have disappeared but elements thereof survive in new forms.