John Hick and Religious Pluralism: Yet Another Revolution

Abstract

John Hick’s An Interpretation of Religion (based on the Gifford Lectures of 1986–7) offers us his latest and most systematic reflections on religious pluralism. Hick has been a major contributor to the debate on religious pluralism since the 1970s and his position has evolved gradually, although since the 1970s he has always championed a “pluralist” approach as opposed to an “exclusivist” or “inclusivist” one.¹ These terms are inadequate, but help in mapping out fundamental issues. The basic orientation of the pluralist is to affirm the great religious traditions as valid and different paths to salvation. Exclusivists, by contrast, believe that only one religion or revelation is true and that the others are false, while Christian inclusivists allow for salvation within other religions but relate this salvific grace to the Christ event in a representative or causative fashion.