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John Hick

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John Hick s religious pluralism & on grading religions What is common among all religions? 1. A response to the Ultimate or the Real 2. A transformation of the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: John Hick


1
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • What is common among all religions?
  • 1. A response to the Ultimate or the Real
  • 2. A transformation of the person responding -
    variously called, liberation, salvation,
    enlightenment
  • 3. But whatever it is called, it is essentially
    a movement from self-centredness to
    Reality-centredness (2nd ed, 561).

2
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • If accept this, ought to accept pluralism
  • Hicks name for the position that all of the
    major religions contain truth and that no one is
    more true or a better path to salvation than
    another

3
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • The stumbling block for Christians to the
    acceptance of pluralism -- the Incarnation
  • Hicks proposal for overcoming this degree
    Christologies
  • Whenever the activity of Gods spirit is active
    in human lives, a kind of incarnation is taking
    place

4
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • What, then, is the explanation for the
    differences among religions?
  • Culture - people respond differently to the
    Ultimate because of differences in culture
  • And the gap between the Reality as it is in
    itself human expressions of this Reality

5
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • Pluralism assumes a general theory of religion
  • A proposal for such a general theory

6
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • 1. All the great religious traditions affirm
    that in addition to the natural world there is a
    greater and higher Reality beyond or within it
  • 2. Our highest good resides in this higher
    Reality
  • 3. This Ultimate Reality is one
  • 4. Our final salvation consists in giving
    ourselves freely totally to this One

7
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • 5. The Ultimate exceeds the reach of our speech
    thought
  • Is a difference between the Ultimate Reality an
    sich as humanly experienced -- mentions
    Immanuel Kant (German, 1724-1804)
  • Hence we always encounter the Ultimate in
    specific cultural forms

8
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • Comments
  • 1. Is Hick emphasizing the transcendence
    otherness of God at the expense of knowing God?
  • 2. Is Hicks concept of the Divine so general
    and so vague that this is not a God we can
    worship or pray to or wish to establish a
    relationship with?

9
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • John Hick on grading religions
  • John Hick. On Grading Religions. Religious
    Studies 17 4 (1981) 451-467.
  • Initially, the idea of grading religions seems
    repulsive to the modern mind.
  • But it is necessary. Why?
  • And there is a history of distinctions within
    religions between more authentic and less
    authentic ways of living the religion.

10
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • One commonality among religions is a soteriology
    in a broad sense
  • A theory about the flawed character of present
    existence a movement to a more perfect
    existence a theory of salvation/liberation
  • unity with God
  • the infinite being-consciousness-bliss of Brahman
  • nirvana or sunyata

11
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • Now the general character of each of these
    theories of salvation/liberation is
  • a movement from self-centredness to
    Reality-centredness (69)
  • We have two tools for grading religions Reason
    moral judgments.

12
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • Reason -- critically evaluate from a purely
    rational perspective the basic beliefs of a
    religion
  • The weakness of this approach -- beliefs are
    based on experience experiences vary widely
  • Moral test -- this is a pragmatic text and is
    workable.

13
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • We can ask Does the religion bring about a
    transformation in persons from self-centredness
    to Reality-centredness? This is looking at the
    visible fruits of the religious tradition.

14
John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
  • Comment
  • Is eschewing religious doctrines leaving out a
    central element of religion, one often used as
    the basis of the religions moral position?
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