The Catholic Church held tenaciously, for the greater part of her history, to exclusivism. That paradigm and worldview was clearly stated in the words of the Fourth Lateran Council, which adopted Cyprian of Carthage’s mantra: extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church no salvation). The Council of Trent appropriated the spirit of that mantra in its attempt to nullify the spiritual and theological validity of the Protestant Reformation.  That remained the official stance of the Catholic Church until the advent of Pope John XXIII. In his encyclical Pacem in Terris, John XXIII stressed not just the imperative of religious freedom, but also its indispensability toward a peaceful modern society. That signaled a paradigmatic shift in the Catholic Church regarding its relationship to other religions and their human value in society; what some scholars have appropriately identified as a Copernican turn. Along the lines of this new trajectory or paradigmatic shift, several documents of Second Vatican Council, especially, Nostra Aetate, Lumen Gentium, Ad Gentes, Gaudium et Spes, and Dignitatis Humanis proposed more positive appreciation of other religions of the world as well as the right of humans to choose their own religions.

Theology of religions identifies this paradigm as religious inclusivism. These documents of Vatican II affirm the universal operation of the Spirit of God in the lives of all people regardless of their race, religion, culture, and nationality. It is incontestable that these Vatican II documents suggest that non-Catholics or non-Christians will be saved because the same grace of God working in the Church and through Christ also extends to people outside physical boundaries of the Church. Therefore, the goodness and values of these people and their non-Christian religions are valid and dignified because they are identical to some values, which actually exist “wholesomely” in the Church.

Following this evolution to inclusivism, many scholars have identified in the same Vatican II documents leads to even newer paradigm shift; namely inclusive religious pluralism. The first theologian to specifically identify this new paradigmatic shift by that term is the Belgian born theologian Jacques Dupuis. The argument of Dupuis and others who have identified this shift in Vatican II documents is that people of all races, religions, cultures, genders, and nationality who live in accord with the will of God (as known by Christianity) will be saved in Christ even if they willfully deny or reject Christ; and that world religions like Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. promote similar values and virtues as the Church. Therefore, that these religions are obviously efficacious instruments of God for their adherents.

Its is logical and theologically valid to surmise that while the Second Vatican Council strongly affirms and promotes inclusivism, it has also strongly alluded to religious pluralism. In the light of ongoing positive appreciation of non-Christian religions around the world, thanks to advancement in interreligious dialogue activities and scholarships, it is synchronous to growing theological development, that the Church embraces and promotes inclusive religious pluralism. The recent encyclical of Pope Francis, which advocates a change in attitude and understanding of human role and place on the planet, is constitutively a theological affirmation of inclusive religious pluralism. The fundamental argument of Francis’ Laudato Si, resonates with the arguments in favor of the environment long proposed and maintained by people of religious traditions like Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Indigenous Religious Traditions of African, North America, the Mayans and Aztecs, Australian Aborigines, etc. Invariably, inclusive religious pluralism is an imperative worldview today for promoting and defending many values that most religions hold in common.

The Church today and tomorrow can best advance her goals of better human society when she collaborates with others on the basis of respect and appreciation of the values of the others than perpetuate the old worn path of smugness and indignity toward other religious traditions. An inclusive religious pluralism worldview, will enhance the Church’s search for social justice, peace, environmental sustainability, care for the poor and less privileged, and the list goes on.