Title: John Hick
1John 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).
2John 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
3John 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
4John 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
5John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions
- Pluralism assumes a general theory of religion
- A proposal for such a general theory
6John 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
7John 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
8John 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?
9John 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.
10John 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
11John 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.
12John 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.
13John 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.
14John 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?