in modern times. However differently we may regard the result
or effect of this increase in our knowledge of the varieties of
religious experience upon our faith, the fact that our horizon
has been constantly widened cannot well be denied. The
reaction of the Christian theologian -- theological thought, not
the layman's reaction, will concern us here -- has been defined
differently in different periods and in different Christian com-
munities (Orthodox, Roman, and various Protestant groups),
and it has differed from individual to individual.

Three main types of reaction can be distinguished: (i) unin-
tentional or intentional disregard of the growing material in the
field of non-Christian religions; (ii) negative reaction, that is,
wholesale denial that any value or importance is to be attributed
to these forms of expression of experience when contrasted with
the Christian; and (iii) positive reaction, which has taken
different forms: (a) acknowledgment of the existence of some
grain of truth in or hidden under these expressions, coupled
with insistence upon the superiority of the Christian claim; (b)
the conclusion that the several expressions of religious ex-
perience are equally valid, and hence that Christianity should
be regarded as one among many faiths, possibly the one
especially adapted to the religious quest of those reared in its
tradition or in the environment which produced it; (c) a
sceptical attitude, which draws from the study of religions the
conclusion that the truth is not to be found in any of them.

The first position, though still widely held to-day, will not
interest us here, since no constructive contribution can be ex-
pected from the ostrich hiding its head in the sand. History
shows that vital developments are not arrested by those who
attempt to ignore them. The second conclusion has had its
defenders through all the ages of Christian history. It has been
reached in abrupt anddogmatic fashion, or again in and through
subtle and protracted processes of reasoning and argumenta-
tion. According to this view, we cannot expect any major con-
tribution from non-Christian sources to the formation of
Christian thought because, in the first place, such addition is
not needed, owing to the fact that the fullness of truth is contained
in the original Christian experience and safeguarded by its
theological tradition, and, secondly, because there are no valid

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