How Religion Inspires Change: Grace Is Offered To All

Last updated on: April 9, 2026 at 1:56 am by Henry Karlson

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How Religion Inspires Change: Grace Is Offered To All 2026-04-09T01:56:07-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Religion can hold a powerful influence in society, both positively and negatively. While the adherents of a particular will likely point to the good which they see coming from their faith as a reason for their faith, they often look to other faiths only to see the bad in them, to show why they are deficient in some fashion. They will ask people to judge their faith based upon the best representations of their faith while judging other religious traditions based upon their worst examples. This is especially true for those who engage apologetics or are interested in having as many people convert to their faith as possible. It should be obvious that comparing religions this way is dishonest, because it has us compare the best in one religion with the worst in another, which will never give us an honest assessment of either. It is better to look for and find the good and the bad in all religious traditions, including and especially in one’s own, comparing the good with the good and the bad with the bad. This will show how and why, despite their differences, religions often have elements in common, with an important element is the way religions has a way to inspire some people to be the best they can be. From a Christian perspective, this should not be entirely surprising, for it demonstrates how God can be and is at work, planting seeds of grace throughout the world, seeds which have even influenced the development of a great number of religious faiths, allowing people who seek God to gain something from the truths they know from their own faith tradition, helping them to become better. Nostra Aetate affirms this perspective:

From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense. [1]

It is this power which helped inspire the development of various religions throughout history, giving them truths which Christians need not, and indeed, should not, deny:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.[2]

We must not use this to suggest all religions are the same. They don’t have to be. The inspiration, and the way that inspiration was engaged, will be different depending upon the religion and culture involved. From the Christian perspective, this helps us see how God prepared the world for the incarnation. That is, it helps us understand how Christ can be said to be the expectations of the nations, as we can see how people throughout the world acquired various truths which could point to and find their perfection in the revelation of Christ.

Thus, we find God has established seeds of grace throughout the world, seeds which give religion in general the ability to transform people and make them better. Most religious traditions have their own stories of men and women, who, at one point in their life, lived unrighteous lives, but after encountering a holy man or woman, was touched by the grace found in that religious tradition and changed their way of life, becoming a holy man or woman themselves. We can believe them and believe God was at work in and through them. For example, there are many stories of murderous brigands, thieves, soldiers, and the like who have had their life turned around, becoming men and women of peace. Aṅgulimāla in Buddhism is a case in point: he was a famous robber who encountered Siddhartha, and found himself called to become one of the Buddha’s earliest disciples. Ashoka the Great is another such personage coming from the Buddhist tradition: he went from becoming a bloodthirsty and militant ruler sending troops out to massacre other peoples (and in some legends, being a sadist who enjoyed torturing people) into one of the greatest humanitarians of ancient history. St. Moses the Ethiopian is a former robber turned saint who inspires many Christians: he went from slave to brigand to a monk who embraced the way of peace, hoping to have others experience the inner peace he found. Moses died, giving no resistance when his monastery was attacked bandits. From Judaism, we have Resh Lakish:

All that we know for certain is that before he became a great scholar, his life had been one long take of violence. After selling himself as a gladiator, he did not fight in the stadium but rather killed his owners, bludgeoning them to death with a stone and then fleeing. On the run, he encountered Rabbi Yohanan, most probably with the intention of robbing him. Rabbi Yohanan, impressed by his great strength, chided him, saying, “Your strength should be devoted to Torah.” To which Resh Lakish, equally impressed by Rabbi Yohanan’s good looks, replied, “Your beauty should be devoted to women.” So they stuck a deal: Resh Lakish would repent and join the world of scholars, and in return would be given the privilege of marrying Rabbi Yohanna’s beautiful sister. The deal was a success on both sides.[3]

Resh Lakish became a great scholar, often debating Yohanna as a kind of sparing partner, often thinking and presenting opinions which were the exact opposite of his mentor, until once, Yohanna criticized Resh Lakish harshly, saying he did not expect better from someone who had once been a bandit. Resh Lakish was taken back from that, surprised at the hostility, and it made him grieve, whereupon he retreated from society and perished from that grief. Yohanan was sad about what had happened, and it is said, he eventually lost his mind due to that sorrow before he died. Resh Lakish was recognized, with Yohannan, as an important Amora, that is one of the scholars whose interpretations of the Mishnah formed the basis of the Gemara which helped led to the formation of the Talmud (and so, he is referenced, with many of his life accomplishments, in the Talmud itself).

These stories, and many like them, show us the way religions around the world have had the power to enact positive change in many of their followers. It is not that we find such spiritual regeneration and transformation was easy, nor that the consequences of what those men and women did before their conversion would not have some sort of consequence upon them later in life (indeed, for many of them, they had deal with those consequences throughout their lives, and it is because they accepted them they showed they transcended their past ways, as seen in the way Moses the Black had to stop himself from fighting the brigands who invaded his monastery, or in the story of Resh Lakish, who felt bad about his past history). Seeing this kind of experience is found in all religious traditions reveals to us the positive value which can be had from religion itself. Indeed, we should be able to discern that people coming from diverse religious traditions are often closer to each other than they often believe themselves to be due to the kind of transformation they experience from the grace or power found in their religious faiths. From the Christian perspective, that means we should be able to accept that there was and is some element of grace coming from the rays of truth found in all religious traditions, not, of course, to say that truth is independent from the truth found in the Christian faith, but rather, it is a truth which participates in the truth revealed in Christianity. Then, we will be able to better appreciate how God is at work in and throughout the world, throughout all of history, giving everyone the opportunity and grace they need to become better, indeed, to become holy.

[1] Nostra Aetate. Vatican translation. ¶2.

[2] Nostra Aetate, ¶2.

[3] Rabbi Jonathan Duker, The Spirits Behind The Law (Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 2007), 98.

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