LECTURE 1 - Cru



LECTURE 6

Religious Pluralism

I. Introduction

II. Introduction to pluralism: John Hick

A. Hick’s background

B. Hick’s hypothesis attempts to explain four factors:

1. The fact that people are inherently religious.

2. Observation that there is substantial diversity in the actual content of religious belief.

3. Assumption that religious belief is not an illusion.

4. Observation that almost every religious tradition positively changes its followers’ lives.

C. Unacceptable alternatives

1. Naturalism: Religious belief is merely an illusion.

2. Absolutism: One religious system is “true” and all others false.

D. Hick’s Hypothesis

1. One Divine Ultimate Reality: the “Real.”

2. No one directly experiences the Real.

3. Each religion represents a culturally conditioned yet authentic response to the Real.

4. The Real transcends all descriptions.

2 What about the Conflicting Truth-Claims of Other Religions?

5. Hypothesis does not deny that religions make differing claims

6. Three areas of disagreement

a. Historical disagreements

b. Trans-historical disagreements

c. Conflicting conceptions of the Real

III. Three Approaches to the Relationship of Christianity and Other Religions

A. Exclusivism (also called “Particularism”)

B. Inclusivism

3 Pluralism

4 Empirical pluralism

6 Philosophical pluralism

7 John Hick has been the most influential champion of pluralism.

8 Limitations of this typology

Understanding Why Religious Pluralism Is So Attractive

10 Knowledge of other religions

11 Pluralization and the Supermarket Mentality

12 Shifting views of religion

13 Desire to affirm cultural and ethnic diversity

C. Assumption that “exclusivism” inevitably leads to crusades, witch hunts, etc.

"The absoluteness of the Christ figure has proved from the time of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, to the present day to be readily available to validate evils. . . . But European anti-Semitism justified itself for many centuries by the charge of deicide, which of course presupposes the deity of Jesus; and the secular anti-Semitism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the holocaust of the 1940s, was possible in a culture that been prepared by centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, originally prompted by the anti-Semitic sayings in the Fourth gospel. . . . Again, Western colonialism, responsible for the destructive exploitation of what we now call the third world, justified itself by the conviction that Christendom had a duty to impose true civilization and true religion--these being regarded as a unity--upon the inferior heathen peoples of the earth." John Hick,

15 The Erosion of Biblical Authority

16 Pervasive Influence of Eastern Thought

17 Impact of Postmodern Thought

Informal Pluralism

Responding to Informal Pluralism in evangelism

D. Several important perspectives:

1. It is helpful to remember that pluralism is not new.

a. Religious diversity in the Roman Empire

i) Emperor worship

ii) Greek and Egyptian deities

iii) Mystery Cults

“The early church was addressing people who worshipped rocks, believed plants could be deities, had sacred animals, accepted ritual castration and prostitution. In addition there were the cults that we normally associate with the Roman Empire: Jupiter and the other Capitoline deities, as well as the cult of the Emperor himself.”[1]

b. The New Testament was written against a pluralistic backdrop.

“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." (1 Corinthians 8:4-6, ESV).

c. Parallels to our situation

2. We must embrace a dialogical approach to defending the Christian faith.

3. We must understand some of the basic differences between world religions.

a. What does this religion teach about the nature of ultimate reality?

b. What does this religion teach about the fate of individuals at death?

c. What does this religion claim is the fundamental problem facing humanity?

d. What solution does it propose?

Dean. C. Halverson, ed. The Compact Guide to World Religions. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1996.

4. Frequently, we must adjust our starting point.

5. We must present the gospel within the framework of the Bible’s story line.

6. It is critical that we treat pluralists with kindness, compassion and respect.

Identifying and responding to underlying issues

7. Tolerance

a. A false dichotomy

b. Pluralists like Hick are far less accommodating than they appear.

8. Assumption that all paths lead to the same destination

| |

|Overview of Five Religious Traditions |

| | | | | | |

|Religion |Founder |God |Jesus |Problem |Solution |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | |Works |

|Hinduism |NA |Brahman |Man |Samsara |Knowledge |

| |3000 BC |Many gods | |Ignorance |Devotion |

| | | | | | |

| |Sidhartha | | | | |

|Buddhism |Guatama |Irrelevant |Man |Samsara |8-fold path |

| |583 BC |Nirvana | |Ego-centered |to Nirvana |

| | | | | | |

| |Abraham | | | | |

|Judaism |Moses |Monotheistic |False |Impurity |Repentance |

| |2000 BC | |Prophet |Alienation |Observe Law |

| | | | | | |

| | | | |Rebellion |Death of Jesus Christ |

|Christianity |Jesus Christ |Trinitarian |God-Man |Sin |Free Gift |

| | | | |Separation | |

| | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

|Islam |Muhammad |Monotheistic |Prophet |Disobedience |Submission |

| |570 AD | | | |5 Pillars |

a. Each of these religions make truth-claims that contradict the truth-claims of other religions.

b. When two religions make contradictory claims they cannot both be correct based on the law of non-contradiction.

9. Religion exists to meet psychological and social needs

10. Religious truth as metaphor

11. Issue of sincerity

12. Inappropriateness of judging or evaluating other religions

a. It is impossible to avoid making religious judgments.

b. Because religions make truth-claims these truth-claims deserve careful consideration.

c. There are criteria we can use to evaluate religious truth-claims.

d. The consequences of denying any criteria

IV. FOR FURTHER STUDY:

John Hick’s Pluralistic Hypothesis

Hick, John. An Interpretation of Religion. New Haven: Yale, 1989. This contains the most thorough presentation of Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis along with the epistemological framework that supports it.

________. A Christian Theology of Religions: The Rainbow of Faiths. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995. In this recent work Hick responds to a variety of criticisms of his pluralistic hypothesis.

Responses to Religious Pluralism

Adler, Mortimer J. Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth. New York: Macmillan, 1990. Alder argues that religious beliefs are not merely matters of taste but matters of truth and therefore subject to the laws of logic.

Carson, D. A. The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996. In this carefully written 640 page work Carson responds to multiplicity of attacks upon Christianity that arise from a pluralistic perspective.

Clarke, Andrew D. and Bruce W. Winter, eds. One God, One Lord: Christianity in a World of Religious Pluralism, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992. This is a collection of essays by Evangelical biblical scholars and theologians responding to religious pluralism.

Clendenin, Daniel. Many Gods, Many Lords: Christianity Encounters World Religions. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995. This is an accessible, balanced, introductory discussion of the theological and cultural issues surrounding the pluralism debate by a graduate staff member with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, working at Stanford University.

D’Costa, Gavin. The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity. Maryknoll, New York, 2000. British theologian D’Costa argues that, even by its own criteria, pluralism doesn’t succeed. He finds the influence of Western modernist thought and/or a veiled exclusivism in not only Hick but also in eastern thinker such as Radhakrishnan and Dalia Lama.

Fernando, Ajith. The Supremacy of Christ. Wheaton: Crossway, 1995. In this work Ajith Fernando, the National Director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka, develops a biblical Christology against the backdrop of religious diversity and pluralism.

Johnson, Keith E. “Do All Paths Lead to the Same Destination?” () Written for a non-Christian audience, this article critiques the popular idea that all religious paths lead to the same destination.

Nash. Ronald H. Is Jesus the Only Savior? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. Nash critiques both Hick’s pluralist position and well as several forms of inclusivism.

Netland, Harold. Dissonant Voices: Religious Pluralism and the Question of Truth. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991 [Reprinted by Regent College Publishing, Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 1997.]

Netland, Harold. Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Faith and Mission. Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity, 2001. In this helpful work Netland expands on the themes he presented in Dissonant Voices. He discusses the attraction of religious pluralism, introduces John Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis and critiques it, identifies criteria for evaluating conflicting worldviews and closes with an outline of an evangelical theology of religions.

Netland Harold A. and Keith E. Johnson. “Why is Religious Pluralism Fun and Dangerous?” in Evangelizing Postmoderns. Ed. D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000. This essay gives an overview of why pluralistic thinking is so attractive and suggests how one might respond to informal pluralism in evangelism.

Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989. A 40-year missionary to India, Newbigin offers an analysis of secular, humanistic, and pluralistic culture and suggests how Christians can confidently affirm their faith is such a context.

Okholm, Dennis L., and Timothy R. Phillips, eds. More Than One Way? Four Views of Salvation in a Pluralistic World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. Four views of “salvation” are presented in this book: (1) A Pluralist view (John Hick), (2) An Inclusivist view (Clark H. Pinnock), (3) A Particularist View: Post-Enlightenment Approach (Alister E. McGrath), and (4) A Particularist View: Evidentialist Approach (R. Douglas Geivett and W. Gary Phillips).

Ramachandra, Vinoth. The Recovery of Mission: Beyond the Pluralist Paradigm. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996. Ramachandra, from Sri Lanka, is the South Asian regional secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Ramachandra provides a careful critique of pluralism as espoused by leading Asian theologians (Samartha, Pieris, Panikkar) and offers an evangelical theological response to pluralism.

Yandell, Keith E. “On the Alleged Unity of All Religions,” Christian Scholars Review 6 (1976): 140-55. Yandell critiques the ever-popular “unity of religions” thesis.

Understanding Other Religions

Alexander, Pat, ed. Eerdmans’ Handbook to the World’s Religions, rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994. This work discuss ancient religions, primal religions, eastern religions, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

Halverson, Dean. C, ed. The Compact Guide to World Religions. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1996. This helpful book provides an overview of eleven different religions with suggestions for evangelizing someone adhering to that tradition. It’s full of helpful charts that summarize the teachings of the major world religions.

McDowell, Josh and Don Stewart. Handbook of Today’s Religions. San Bernardino: Here’s Life, 1983. [This book is currently published by Thomas Nelson.] This is an useful reference work which discusses not only non-Christian religions (such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.) but also cults and the occult. Each chapter presents the basic beliefs of a particular religion and then compares its beliefs to orthodox Christianity.

Neill, Stephen. Christian Faith and Other Faiths. Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity, 1984. Neill discusses Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Primal Religion, Secularism, and Christianity.

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[1] David W. Gill, “Behind the Classical Façade: Local Religions in the Roman Empire, in One God, One Lord: Christianity in a World of Religious Pluralism, ed., Andrew D. Clarke and Bruce W. Winter (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 100.

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