Abstract
Issues of religious truth are central to the theologies and philosophies of both Paul Tillich and John Hick. Both respond appreciatively to questions from secular theorists while holding a personal, critically informed religious faith. Their work shares the challenges of supporting faith as rational and verifiable in response to philosophical and naturalistic critiques and of how to approach the plurality of religions. One underlying issue in their discussions is how to mediate relativism versus absolutism, with both men positing one absolute and offering criteria for judging among religious truths.
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Notes
P. Tillich (1969) ‘On the Idea of a Theology of Culture’ (1919) in J. L. Adams (ed., trans.) What Is Religion? (New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row), p. 162.
P. Tillich (1951) Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press), p. 10.
J. Hick (1989) An Interpretation of Religion; Human Responses to the Transcendent (New Haven and London: Yale University Press), pp. 73–74.
Paul Tillich (1959) ‘Aspects of a Religious Analysis of Culture’ (1956) in R. C. Kimball (ed.) Theology of Culture (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press), p. 42.
P. Tillich (1957) Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.), p. 4.
Ibid., pp. 30–34.
Ibid., pp. 35–40.
Tillich (1957), p. 98; and P. Tillich (1963) Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions (New York and London: Columbia University Press), pp. 47–51.
Tillich (1963), pp. 4, 97 and P. Tillich (1966) ‘The Significance of the History of Religions for the Systematic Theologian” in: J. C. Brauer (ed.) The Future of Religions (New York: Harper & Row, Publ.), p. 81.
P. Tillich, ‘Justification and Doubt’, (1919), in an English translation by Robert P. Scharlemann (Tillich Archive at Harvard Divinity School), p. 5. in German: P. Tillich (1999) ‘Rechtfertigung und Zweifel’, in E. Sturm (ed.), Religion, Kultur, Gesellschaft: Unveröffentlichte Texte aus der Deutschen Zeit (1908–1933), Ergänzungs- und Nachlassbönde zu den Gesammelten Werken von Paul Tillich, vol. 10 (Berlin & New York: De Gruyter Evangelisches Verlagswerk), pp. 127–230.
P. Tillich (1952) The Courage To Be (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), pp. 187, 190.
J. Hick (1966) Faith and Knowledge, 2nd edition, (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press), p. 169.
Ibid., p. 170.
Ibid., pp. 176–177.
Ibid., pp. 179, 192.
Ibid., p. 199.
For Tillich, the one Unconditional or ultimate is what grounds both philosophy and theology. See P. Tillich (1955) Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press), pp. 81–85.
P. Tillich (1954) Love, Power, and Justice (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 63–64; and P. Tillich (1971) ‘Basic Principles of Religious Socialism’ (1923) in J. L. Adams (ed.) Political Expectation (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers), p. 82.
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© 2012 Mary Ann Stenger
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Stenger, M.A. (2012). Mediating Relativism and Absolutism in Tillich’s and Hick’s Theories of Religious Truth. In: Sugirtharajah, S. (eds) Religious Pluralism and the Modern World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230360136_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230360136_13
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