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If I allow Jesus to be of decisive significance for my existence by understanding myself as he explicitly calls me to do, then I may be said to be implicitly a Christian even though I do not (yet) make any explicit Christian confession by means of the classic formulation, "Jesus is the Christ," or any other logically equivalent and interchangeable formulation, including "Jesus is of decisive significance for human existence." But I may also be said to be implicitly a Christian (or, alternatively, a Buddhist, or a Muslim, or a . . .) if I so open myself to the meaning of ultimate reality for us as to understand myself and lead my life in the same way in which Jesus (or, alternatively, the Dharma, or the Koran, or the . . .) explicitly calls me to do. So traditional Roman Catholic theology speaks of a votum implicitum Christi s. ecclesiceecclesiae.

In the first sense in which I may be said to be implicitly a Christian, I am so related to Jesus, mediately if not immediately, that he is of decisive significance for my life and for all human life, although I do not (yet) explicitly confess him to be so. In the second sense, I am so related to ultimate reality in its meaning for us that I could only explicitly confess Jesus (or, alternatively, the Dharma, or the Koran, or . . .) to be thus decisive were I to encounter him (or, alternatively, it, or . . .) under the horizon of my existential question and were to respond consistently with my understanding relation to the meaning of ultimate reality.

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