Stereotypes in Christian Theology: Methodological and Eschatological Aspects

In this article, I approach the issue of stereotyping on two levels. First, methodologically, by revisiting the somewhat classical discussion on the sources of theology, discussing methods of correlation in the theologies of Paul Tillich and David Tracy, and arguing that acknowledging other religious traditions as sources of Christian theology can actually work as an antidote to theological stereotypes. Second, eschatologically, by highlighting one area of Christian theology where theologians, generally considered well informed by, and open to, religious pluralism, tend to a sort of othering or stereotyping of the religious Other. Then, in an attempt to combine these two levels, I apply the methodological argument of the first level to the second level’s question of the religious Other in Christian eschatology. Concretely, this means that I briefly “correlate” some aspects of religious otherness in the eschatologies of the Christian theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg and the Muslim theologian Ahmad Sakr.