John Hick's Pluralist Views Flashcards
Hick was an evangelical Christian as a young man, firmly convinced of the truth of Christianity and of the need to convert others to the Christian message of ? through Christ.
Salvation.
“As soon as one does meet and come to know people of other faiths a ? of gigantic proportions becomes disturbingly obvious”.
Paradox.
Hick suggested there was a need for what he called a “? ?” in his theology. Hick used this in the way people thought about planets as an analogy for what he believed was the right direction for theology. Hick thought that people should put God, or “?”, at the centre.
Copernican Revolution.
Reality.
Hick used the philosophy of Immanuel Kant in formulating his pluralist theology. Kant drew a distinction between the “?” (a world of things as they really are) and the “phenomenal” (the world as it appears to us).
Noumenal.
Kant argued thought that the nature of God belongs in the ? world. We’re not capable of knowing God as he really is due to our finite minds. We’re only capable of making a limited attempt at knowing God, relating him to ourselves and who we are.
Noumenal.
Hick argued that religion’s a human, phenomenal attempt to understand and relate to God. Every religion according to Hick, falls short of the truth because none is capable of a ? ? of God.
Noumenal understanding.
For Hick, Christianity shouldn’t be understood as “? ?”.
The truth.
Hick came to the conclusion that the truth-claims of Christianity weren’t cognitive claims about literal facts but should be understood as myth. These claims are, in ? view, pictorial ways of expressing the human relationship with what he calls “? ?”, and shouldn’t be understood as historical truth.
Hick’s.
The Real.
Hick believed a God of love wouldn’t organise the universe in such a way that salvation was limited to only some people. His ? also involves an understanding of life after death in which everyone has the opportunity to continue the journey towards “? ?” in a post-mortem existence.
Pluralism.
The Real.
