pluralism

• key scholar for pluralism is Hick
• Hick on religion of an individual being an accident of birth

  • relationship between humans + ultimate reality is shaped by history + culture
  • it is a mistake to understand salvation in terms of the sacred writings of one particular religion + to adopt an exclusivist position
  • he rejected the concept of hell as incompatible with belief in an omnibenevolent God
  • he distinguished between the concept of ultimate reality + the widely differing views that humans have of that reality
  • for Hick, religion was about self-transformation, rather than about believing certain teachings + practices are true - this means differences or incompatibilities between religions are insignificant
• Hick's universalism

  • purpose of life = soul-making or spiritual growth
  • this raised the question of those who died without having fulfilled their purpose + in some cases having wreaked misery on earth
  • Hick believed that after death there would be future lives to enable spiritual growth that would result in eternity with God
  • he rejected the teaching relating to everlasting suffering in Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats
• summarily: Hick's universalism = life is about self-transformation rather than truth claims: incompatibilities are not of real religious significance
• assessments of Hick's views

  • his claim that apparent incompatibilities between religions are insignificant is not a valid one
  • views + practices of some religious groups e.g. religious cults or IS, seem totally incompatible with those of any mainstream religion or society
  • Christianity traditionally thinks in terms of life, death, judgement + final state: Hick's idea of future states of existence after death does not fit into this, so many would reject it
  • most religions reject the view that religion is about self-transformation rather than the quest for truth
• Hick's ideas do go some way to promoting interfaith + interdenominational relations

  • his views about the cultural links between individuals + their religion encourages people to think about the one-ness of human religious understanding + not just about the differences between religions
  • his views on the nature of religion + on universalism could strengthen interfaith + interdenominational relations