John Hick

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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).

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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

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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

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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

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John Hicks religious pluralism on grading
religions

• Pluralism assumes a general theory of religion
• A proposal for such a general theory

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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

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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

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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?

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?