Dominus Iesus (as I understand it) conveys three lines of thought:
- It states that the Catholic Church wants to be open and respectful towards other religions
- It establishes what constitues (in Ratzinger's opinion) Catholic faith
- The revelations, workings and salvation of God are not limited to the Catholic Church, but it is only in the Catholic Church that they are complete.
Ad 1: I like that in principle, although it sound a bit demeaning towards other religions: The Catholic Church ... has a high regard for the ... teachings ...which ... often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. So the other religions only offer rays of enlightment.
Ad 2: There's nothing wrong with clearly outlining what constitutes ones faith. Where Ratzinger does go wrong (in my opinion) is in making Catholic faith an all-or-nothing issue. He basically says "these are the things that you must believe, and if you do not believe every single on of them, then you are not a Roman Catholic". I believe that every person should find her or his own way in faith.
Ad 3: Here's where it goes terribly wrong. Ratzinger says that only in the Catholic Church God's revelations are complete. This sounds so much like "people from other religions will be salvated too, but remember, we are holier than thou".
No, I don't like it. Reading this text has also made me severely doubt Ratzinger's intentions to try and bring unity to all Christiias during his papacy. I had hoped it would be unity on equal foot, but Dominus Iesus makes me fear that it will be only a two-class kind of unity.
No, I didn't read the critical analysis yet ...