Pluralism Flashcards

Question

Anonymous Christianity

Answer 1

A system which, without design, nonetheless is promoting within a framework of practices and values that permit grace This means he is open to other religions, but may draw the line at those that don’t open to God’s grace e.g Buddhism

Answer 2

‘*Somehow all men must be capable of being members of the Church; and this capacity, must be understood not merely in the sense of the abstract, but as a real and historically concrete one*’ ‘*For this reason a non-Christian religion can be recognised as a lawful religion without thereby denying the error or **depravity contained within***’ He is saying that it must be possible for everyone to have been able to be part of the Church, in more than an abstract sense. Therefore, non-Christian religions can be seen as Christian if they held the right values which prepare them for grace; yet he is not saying they are good, highlighting the ‘error or depravity contained within’.

Answer 3

Humans are sinful and they are unconditionally loved by God This means that people can have access to God’s grace outside the Church This isn’t official doctrine of the Catholic Church, citing the story of Paul in Athens where he criticises them for worshipping an unseen God - the Church assert that Paul was condemning the Greek god Rahner claims Paul wasn’t condemning the Greeks but is instead saying the ‘unknown god’ they worship is actually the Trinitarian God of Christianity

Answer 4

‘*I know my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on earth*’ - Job (predating Jesus, yet predicting) In Matthew 25, the sheep didn’t know they were acting for Christ ‘*when did we do these things for you Lord*’ Romans 2:14-16, if someone acts from their heart and their conscience in a Christian manner they are able to go to heaven

Answer 5

Kraemer claims we must respect the divide and borders of religion - we can’t find ‘points of contact’ For people of other beliefs, it is very colonial and patronising by claiming they are unwitting Christians when they are not actually Pluralists say he doesn’t go far enough and is wrong to dismiss or brand other faiths as less equal and of less value

Answer 6

Another way of structural Inclusivism

Answer 7

*… is not condemned; but who he does not believe is condemned already… He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides n him*’ - **John 3:16-18, 36**

Answer 8

Says that John 14 (I am the Way etc) shows ‘*both the absoluteness (exclusivism) of the Christian religion and the urgen necessity of Christian missions is clearly indicated*’

Answer 9

The Blind Men (different faiths) disagree on what the Elephant (God) is due to the different areas they are touching and eventually kill each other for their different perspectives. They can only understand about the true nature of God if they collaborate to decide - there is no monopoly on God This parable inspired Hick

Answer 10

The fact that only a small number of people can actually achieve salvation according to the Exclusivist perspective, yet this doesn’t seem in line with God’s traits as He has universal love and wills the ultimate salvation of all - ‘paradox’

Answer 11

Kant argues there was the noumenal (as it really is) and phenomenal (as it appears to be) world Hick argued God was part of the noumenal world and thus unknowable This explains why God is mysterious and some believe God does not exist; due to our ignorance of the noumenal However, they all promote the same reality

Answer 12

Life at the Uni of Birmingham led him to multi-faith communities and he eventually renounced his earlier evangelical brand of Christianity His pluralistic views led to some, like D’Costa, arguing they don’t recognise Christianity in Hick’s views He remained a committed Christian his whole life, ending it as a Quaker He aimed to create a global theology which would give both a philosophical and theological framework for greater co-operation between the six world faiths and others

Answer 13

Further demonstrated the noumenal-phenomenal relationship by the wide range of experiences of God humans claim to have Hick refers to Wittgenstein’s duck rabbit (which can present as either), showing there is a reality to find here but some express it differently, like people do with religion

Answer 14

Using Kant’s categorical imperative of treating people as ends in themselves - all authentic religions uphold this In Christianity, this is summed up as the Golden Rule

Answer 15

He does not argue any one religion has superiority but rather their own distinctiveness

Answer 16

He argues revelation emanates from God, no other source, and resultantly it should be theocentric The doctrine of incarnation, resurrection and others are myths not facts

Answer 17

The insistence on the special place of Christ as a person of the Trinity Hick wishes to disband this idea and argues Jesus had a special relationship, even special consciousness of, with God but mustn’t be objectified as God

Answer 18

Pluriform argues there can be as many ‘Realities’ as there are experiences They argue all aspects of religious experience can be considered real This allows for those experience to be considered valuable in and of themselves rather than trying to justify them against an arbitrary unitary Reality Proposed by **Keith Ward**

Answer 19

Concerned with action Argue all religions share the same aim of reducing suffering, injustice, intolerance and falsehood and are concerned with saving people, not accessing reality Proposed by **Paul Knitter**, an advocate of Liberation Theology. However he does not see LT as being wholly encompassed in the Catholic Christian faith

Answer 20

Hick says they are aware of different things but this ultimate is the same

Answer 21

Different culturally created, human traditions provide different lenses, leading to different options and ways forward to access the Real

Answer 22

Through the two tier system between religions (reality as we see it) and the transcendent (God, who remains unknown to us) Due to this separation, no religion has priority or power to explain religion any better but consequently there is no literal truth to any religion

Answer 23

Talked about the need for openness rather than discussing what is ‘the truth’ or where it may be found He treated life as a pilgrimage, thinking it was necessary to respect the freedom of God to work in ways that go beyond human attempt to define and doctrinalise it Thought ‘Christ’ was the word for God making himself known and other religions had similar instances - Christ was not the only Christophany Didn’t like being called a pluralist as he didn’t attempt to take an academic stance but rather a spiritual one

Answer 24

Similar to Rahner, but Rahner thought Christianity held more truth than other religions Panikkar thought that this limits God’s freedom

Answer 25

*… Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian*’ - R.P New York Times 2010