Who will be allowed into heaven's doors?
John Thatamanil
By AMY GREEN
For The Tennessean
Vanderbilt professor rebuts belief that only Christians are saved
Who gets to go to heaven?
For many Christians in today's increasingly inter-religious world, it's
no longer an abstract question but a personal one about to whom they're
married or whom their children are dating.
''It becomes viscerally impossible to consign everyone who doesn't
belong to my religion to the fires of hell,'' said John Thatamanil,
assistant professor of theology at the Vanderbilt University Divinity
School. ''We're put in a very uncomfortable position. ... We feel
obliged to exclude people because that's what the Bible teaches.''
Christianity traditionally has taught that one must commit to Christ to
enter heaven. But Thatamanil says that's only one interpretation of the
Bible, and there is evidence that early Christians believed Christ to
be at work in other faiths. As the world grows more diverse and
Christianity loses some of its dominance, the debate over who goes to
heaven is growing.
Thatamanil will present three different positions on the issue - only
one that says salvation is exclusive to Christians - at a community
breakfast next week and four-part education series beginning later this
month. He acknowledges that some might accuse him of diluting the
Bible's message but says most of his students have been relieved to
hear his teachings.
''People breathe a sigh of relief,'' said Thatamanil, who attends St.
Augustine's Episcopal Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus and has taught
there and at other area Episcopal congregations. ''When people see I
don't have to believe that my spouse is lost or my son-in-law is
damned, and I'm not watering down the tradition, that this is just
another way of understanding the religion, it actually comes as a big
relief.''
The verse John 14:6, in which Jesus says, ''I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,'' is
well-known. But Thatamanil points to the book of Revelation, which
talks of healing among nations.