An influential idea advanced by the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner and his student Johannes Metz, is that non-Christians who live a morally decent life could be saved by the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus even if they'd never even heard of Christianity. I'm tutored on this concept by my friend George Weigel, the biographer of Pope John Paul II. (You might want to read Weigel's article, ''The Century After Rahner,'' in the Library of Catholic Culture online.''At one level, the notion of 'anonymous Christianity' was simply the ancient Christian recognition that 'there are many whom Christ has that the Church does not have' -- though all who are saved, even outside the formal boundaries of the Church, are saved through Christ,'' Weigel notes.
My favorite statement of this impulse is from the 1965 statement promulgated by Pope Paul VI at the end of Vatican II: ''Since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is, in fact, one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.''
....Weigel.....(states) that Rahner's idea of anonymous Christianity can't be pushed too far. When all is said and done, Christianity simply cannot accept interfaith dialogue disconnected from its understanding of the truth of the Christian claim. In addition to respectful and humble dialogue with non-Christians, there must always be an evangelizing element seeking the conversion of the partner in dialogue to what Christians believe is a truer vision of God's way with us in the world.
Link (here)
More on Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. (here)
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