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PLURALISM WITH REFERENCE TO JOHN HICK - Coggle Diagram
PLURALISM WITH REFERENCE TO JOHN HICK
HICKS VIEW OF THE NATURE OF GOD AND RELIGION
he was a conservative evangelical but moved away from that position to religious pluralism
his starting point on pluralism was that the religion of an individual is almost lalways an accident of birth
the relationship between humans and what he thought of as ultimate reality is shaped by history and culture
its a mistake to understand salvation In terms of the sacred writings of one particular religion and to adopt an excusavist position
he rejected the concept of hell as incompatable with the belief in an omnibenevolent god
hick distinguished the concept of ultimate reality and he widely differing views that humans have of reality
he thought that religion was about self-transformation rather than believing certain teachings and practices are true
this means that differences and so called incompatibilities between religions are insignificant
HICKS UNIVERSALISM
He is a universalist
believes that gods salvation will be available to everybody whatever their religion
He viewed the purpose of human life as one of soul making, or spiritual growth
that raised the question of those who dies wothout having fulfilled their purpose, in some cases, having wreaked misery on earth
hick believed that after death there would be future lives, in this or other worlds, to enable spiritual growth that would result in eternity with god
he rejected the teaching related to everlasting suffering in Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats
ASSESSMENT OF HICKS VIEWS
His ideas have not been very widely accepted for a few reasons:
his claim that apparent incompatibilities between religions are insignificant is not a valid one
the views and practices of some religious groups (e.g suicide cults0 seem totally incompatible with those of mainstream religions of societies
Christianity traditionally thinks in terms of life, death, judgement and final state
hicks idea of future states of existence after death does not fit in with this so many christians would reject it
the concept of universalism is unacceptable to evangelical protestants though acceptable to some liberal protestants
most religions reject the view that religion is about self-transformation rather than just a quest for truth
hicks ideas do however go some way to promoting interfaith and interdenominational relations:
his views about the cultural links btwee individuals and their religion encourages people to think about the one-ness of human religion understanding and nt just about the differenced between religions
his views on nature of religion and on universalism souls strengthen interfaith and interdenominational relations