Editing Religious pluralism (section)

===Modern Christian views===
Some other Protestants hold that only believers who believe in certain fundamental doctrines know the true pathway to salvation. The core of this doctrine is that Jesus Christ was a perfect man, is the Son of God and that he died and rose again for the wrongdoing of those who will accept the gift of salvation. They continue to believe in "one" church, an "invisible church" which encompasses different types of Christians in different sects and denominations, believing in certain issues they deem fundamental, while disunited on a variety of doctrines they deem non-fundamental. Some [[evangelical]] Protestants are doubtful if Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox can possibly be members of this "invisible church", and usually they reject religious (typically [[restorationist]]) movements rooted in 19th-century American Christianity, such as [[Mormonism]], [[Christian Science]], or [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] as not distinctly Christian.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://apologeticsindex.org/d01b.html#prot |title=The Protestant Principle |website=Apologetics index: Biblical Guide To Orthodoxy And Heresy |access-date=7 February 2016}}</ref>

The [[Catholic Church]], unlike some Protestant denominations, affirms "developmental theology", understood to mean that the "[[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]], in and through the evolving and often confused circumstances of concrete history, is gradually bringing the Church to an ever more mature understanding of the [[deposit of faith]] (the saving truths entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Apostles—these as such cannot be changed or added to). The Church comes to recognize [[baptism of desire]] quite early in its history. Later, the Church realizes that Romans 2:14–16, for example, allows for the salvation of non-Christians who do not have unobstructed exposure to Christian teachings: "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires.... They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts....<ref>Robert Magliola, ''Facing Up to Real Doctrinal Difference: How Some Thought-Motifs from Derrida Can Nourish the Catholic-Buddhist Encounter'' (Angelico P., 2014), pp. 101–2.</ref> Various forms of "implicit faith" come to hold standing, until at [[Vatican Council II]], the Church declares: "Nor shall divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to those who, without any fault of theirs, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, and who, not without grace, strive to lead a good life" (#16). Vatican Council II in its Declaration [[Nostra aetate]] addresses the non-Christian religions with respect and appreciation, affirming the goodness found in them. Since Vatican Council II, Catholic dialogists in particular are working out the implications of [[John Paul II]]'s statement, in [[Redemptor hominis]] #6 that Christians should recognize "the Holy Spirit operating outside the visible confines of the [[Body of Christ#Catholicism|Mystical Body of Christ]]." Among these dialogists, [[Robert Magliola]], an affiliate of the Italian community Vangelo e Zen ("The Gospel and Zen"), Desio and Milano, Italy, who taught in predominantly Buddhist cultures for years, and practiced Buddhist-Catholic dialogue there and in the West, and who is widely published in this dialogue, argues the following:
{{Blockquote | If God has willed that all persons be saved (see [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]] #851, quoting 1 Tim. 2:4) but has not sent the opportunity of Christian conversion to all, how can we not conclude that God wills those good Buddhists in this latter category to live, flourish, and die as good Buddhists? That God in His providence—at least for now—wants Buddhism to be the setting for millions of good and noble people in the world? (This does not mean that Catholics should not witness to the Catholic faith or even—on the proper occasions and in a courteous way—consider it their duty to preach Catholicism to Buddhists, and to teach it mightily. But it does mean that Catholics would do well to remember that God alone sends the grace of conversion when and to whom He wills.)<ref>Robert Magliola, ''Facing Up to Real Doctrinal Difference: How Some Thought-Motifs from Derrida Can Nourish the Catholic-Buddhist Encounter'' (Angelico P., 2014), pp. 116, 142, where he applies the same reasoning to relations with other non-Christian religions.</ref>}}