Predictably, the book has come under fire from two opposing camps. The chapter on Jesus Christ has caused unease by its suggestions of Adoptionism and Nestorianism, an unease I share myself. I continue to ruminate on this issue. This chapter was quoted several times by the eminent Jesuit theologian Jacques Dupuis in his book Toward a Pluralist Theology of Religions. Dupuis has now been forbidden to teach Christology and his book is under investigation by the Vatican.
Religious pluralism is a genuinely threatening reality for Christian theology.
It has a relativizing and demystifying impact comparable to that of the theory of evolution. It is not surprising that much of the reaction to it takes the form of denial, phobia, and panic. With clear, creative analysis. The entire field of interreligious theology is still too little explored for any reassuring conclusions to have emerged. Church authorities would like an edifying, spiritual encounter of faiths that would leave no doctrinal feathers unruffled.