Abstract
The volume represents a global response to Hick's philosophy of religious pluralism. Setting out the historical and theological background against which Hick’s religious pluralism emerged, it examines some of the contentious issues that resurface in the pluralism debate, ranging from his concept of divine ineffability to Kant to the noumenal Real to the ethical-soteriological criterion, and the reception of his version of religious pluralism both within and outside the Western hemisphere. It widens the discourse by bringing Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis into a critical and constructive cultural and interreligious engagement with Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Daoist, Hindu, Jain, as well as Japanese, Korean, and African perspectives. The volume demonstrates how Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis is globally widespread, yet locally rooted and interconnected. Whether one welcomes or critiques Hick’s pluralism, one cannot but be deeply touched by his own journey to a pluralistic vision which continues to be relevant in a world torn apart by various kinds of absolutisms.
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Notes
- 1.
At the same time, Hick didn’t take a defensive stance to explain away any changes in his thinking over a period time. He saw it in terms of development of his thought rather than being incoherent. He draws favourably on Jonathan Swift who said: ‘A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been mistaken, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday’ (1995: 66).
- 2.
- 3.
Hick played a significant part in helping Ramgharia Sikhs in procuring a redundant church building so that it could be set up as a place of worship, as well as in getting permission from City’s Planning Committee for Muslims to have a place of prayer in Birmingham (Hick 2002: 175–7). As chair of various committees, Hick not only emphasised the positive contribution of diverse ethnic communities to Britain but also the value of a multifaith syllabus in the RE curriculum. As the first chairperson of All Faiths for One Race (AFFOR), and along with John Plummer as its first director, Hick played a pivotal role in facilitating community and inter-faith relations. He had been actively involved in promoting a just and tolerant society where people of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds could live in harmony. Hick was probably one of the few British academic theologians to raise the issue of racism. When Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968 created a political storm, British theologians were debating in abstract language about the implications of secular theology. The two succinct but significant pamphlets he wrote—The New Nazism of the National Front and National Party: A Warning to Christians (1977) and Christianity and Race (1978)—encapsulated the prevalent white supremacist tendencies, the unfairness of immigration laws, the racial profiling of the West Indian children in schools which disadvantaged them and hindered their integration. Another of Hick’s important pamphlets, Apartheid Observed (1980), showed his commitment to wider anti-racism outside Britain—the brutal treatment of the blacks by the white South African government. These three short essays offered not only a strident critique of the evils of racism but also a theological critique as well as practical direction as to how to change the public perception of the ‘Other’.
- 4.
Gillis (2012: 146).
- 5.
For more such examples, see Perry Schmidt-Leukel (2017: 36–39).
- 6.
See also Ruston (2016: 5–6) who draws attention to this significant point.
- 7.
There were some twists and turns in Hick’s long theological/spiritual journey. He made a radical shift from a Christo-centric to a theocentric view and eventually to a pluralistic hypothesis that placed the Real at the centre of the universe of faiths.
- 8.
For a fuller discussion of this, see also Maharaj (2018: 117–138).
- 9.
For a South African appreciation and critique of Hick’s religious pluralism in relation to pre-axial and post-axial religions, see (Prozesk 2012: 5–14).
- 10.
- 11.
For a detailed account of the impact of Hick on Chinese Religious Studies, see Wang (2012).
- 12.
See ‘The Conflicting Truth Claims of Different Religions’ in Sharma (1995: 211–225).
- 13.
For Asian Christian and multifaith perspectives on religious pluralism, see Paul Knitter (2005). See also Schmidt-Leukel (2017) who discusses the relationship between religious pluralism and interreligious theology from diverse religious viewpoints, and concludes with a ‘fractural interpretation of religious diversity’.
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Sugirtharajah, S. (2023). John Hick’s Religious Pluralism: Home and Abroad . In: Sugirtharajah, S. (eds) John Hick's Religious Pluralism in Global Perspective. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11008-5_1
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