This article explores how interfaith dialogue, especially involving non-Christian views and interpretations of Jesus, has transformed contemporary understandings of Christology. It also contends how and why such challenges and developments can further reform and expand what is meant by the Church and salvation (ecclesiology and soteriology). To do so, it first highlights three perspectives towards the other that seem most promising for any robust interfaith Christology and why turning to non-Christians for views of Christ can be spiritually and theologically helpful, if not cathartic. To highlight this idea, it then examines some representative Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist interpretations or critiques of Christology. In doing so, the article ambitiously contends that one main aim of transforming Christology is to transform the Church. Thus, the transformation of Christology through interfaith dialogue will also transform the Church because it will transform how Christians perceive and respond to what is salvific in other faiths and revelations. Advocating for a more expansive Christology, therefore, coincides with developing a more expansive ecclesiology and soteriology.
Peter Admirand (Thu,) studied this question.