Philip Yancey begins chapter four of his most popular book, What’s So Amazing About Grace? with this famous anecdote about C.S. Lewis:
“During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. ‘What’s the rumpus about?’ he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among the world’s religions. Lewis responded, ‘Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.'”
It’s a great anecdote. And even more so if it actually happened! But whether it happened is not my concern here. Rather, my concern is whether the punchline is true. Is it true that Christianity is unique among the world religions in offering grace?
The essence of grace is the granting of unmerited favor on another. And by that definition, the answer to our question is clearly no. There are many examples of grace in other religions. Interestingly, this question has often been answered by finding a parallel in eastern religions, and specifically in the bodhisattva of Pure Land Buddhism who, after achieving nirvana, benevolently returns and acts as a mediator to aid others in their transformative journey.
That said, there are other examples closer to Christianity, the most obvious of which is Judaism. I suspect that example doesn’t immediately come to the mind of many Christians because their thinking about Judaism is a caricature of works righteousness. But such notions have been repeatedly criticized by the many “new perspectives on Paul” that have arisen since E.P. Sanders published his landmark book Paul and Palestinian Judaism in 1977. Judaism has always had a profound understanding of grace in God’s election of Israel.
And there is another example in the western monotheisms which is rather obvious: Islam. It is true that Islam rests on five “pillars”: a profession of faith, prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage. But it is no part of Islam to say that the Muslim who follows these five steps will thereby earn their way into salvation. According to the doctrine of Al-Qadr, God predestines an elect group to salvation and all that they do as the outworking of that decree is thereby a matter of God’s unmerited favor, God’s grace, directed to those elect individuals. In this regard, Islam very much parallels the Christian theology of Calvinism. Just as the Calvinist insists that all are dead in sin and it is God’s unconditional election and irresistible grace which only ever draws any wretched individual into the category of the elect, so it is with Islam. So if you want to deny that Islam has a conception of grace, you must do the same for Calvinism (though, admittedly I know some Arminians who might find that a tempting prospect!).
What’s the lesson here? For starters, don’t build your understanding of Christianity and its uniqueness on false notions, for to misrepresent other religions in this manner is a subversion of truth and a violation of the Golden Rule. Furthermore, if you really want to find the uniqueness of Christianity, let it be enough to say that you believe it to be true. If other religions echo that truth to various degrees, including in their conceptions of grace, then all the better: all truth is indeed God’s truth.
