Abstract
John Hick’s An Interpretation of Religion (based on the Gifford Lectures of 1986–7) offers us his latest and most systematic reflections on religious pluralism. Hick has been a major contributor to the debate on religious pluralism since the 1970s and his position has evolved gradually, although since the 1970s he has always championed a “pluralist” approach as opposed to an “exclusivist” or “inclusivist” one.1 These terms are inadequate, but help in mapping out fundamental issues. The basic orientation of the pluralist is to affirm the great religious traditions as valid and different paths to salvation. Exclusivists, by contrast, believe that only one religion or revelation is true and that the others are false, while Christian inclusivists allow for salvation within other religions but relate this salvific grace to the Christ event in a representative or causative fashion.
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Notes
John Hick, “The Theology of Religious Pluralism”, Theology, 86, no. 713 (1983) 337
Ibid., p. 246; and John Hick, “Religious Pluralism and Salvation” and “A Concluding Comment”, Faith and Philosophy, 5, no. 4 (1988) 452
David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779), ed. Norman Kemp Smith (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1947) iv. 1.
A. Wedberg, A History of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982) II, 174.
Peter Byrne, “John Hick’s Philosophy of Religion”, Scottish Journal of Theology, 35, no. 4 (1982) 289–301.
Paul Knitter, “Towards a Liberation Theology of Religions”, in John Hick and Paul Knitter (eds), The Myth of Christian Uniqueness (London: SCM, 1987).
Hans Küng, “Towards an Ecumenical Theology of Religion: Some Theses for Clarification”, in Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann, Christianity among World Religions, Concilium 183 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1986) p. 123.
H. Kraemer, Religion and the Christian Faith (London: Lutterworth, 1956) p. 85.
See Gavin D’Costa, Theology and Religious Pluralism: The Challenge of Other Religions (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986)
G. D’Costa (ed.), Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered: The Myth of a Pluralistic Theology of Religions (New York: Orbis, 1990)
Gavin D’Costa, John Hick’s Theology of Religions: A Critical Evaluation (New York: University Press of America, 1987)
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© 1991 The Claremont Graduate School
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D’Costa, G., Kellenberger, J., Hick, J. (1991). John Hick and Religious Pluralism: Yet Another Revolution. In: Hewitt, H. (eds) Problems in the Philosophy of Religion. Library of Philosophy and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21547-8_1
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