Religious Pluralism and the Modern World: An Ongoing Engagement with John Hick

278 Pages·2012·1.679 MB·English

by  Sharada Sugirtharajah (eds.)

Religious Pluralism and the Modern World
Also by Sharada Sugirtharajah
IMAGINING HINDUISM: A Postcolonial Perspective
John Hick’s Principal Writings
FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE, 1957, 1966 (2nd edn), 2009 (reprinted)
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, 1963, 1991 (4th edn)
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, 1964 (edited)
FAITH AND THE PHILOSOPHERS, 1964 (edited) (reissued 2011)
CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY READINGS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF
RELIGION, 1963, 1990 (3rd edn) (edited)
EVIL AND THE GOD OF LOVE, 1966, 1977 (2nd edn), 2007 (3rd edn), 2010 (reissued)
THE MANY-FACED ARGUMENT, 1967, 2009 (reissued) (edited, with Arthur McGill)
CHRISTIANITY AT THE CENTER, 1968
ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, 1970
GOD AND THE UNIVERSE OF FAITHS, 1973
TRUTH AND DIALOGUE, 1974 (edited)
DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE, 1976
THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE, 1977 (edited)
GOD HAS MANY NAMES, 1980
CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS, 1980 (edited, with Brian Hebblethwaite)
THE SECOND CHRISTIANITY, 1983
WHY BELIEVE IN GOD? 1983 (with Michael Goulder)
THE EXPERIENCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, 1985 (edited, with Hasan Askari)
PROBLEMS OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM, 1985
THE MYTH OF CHRISTIAN UNIQUENESS, 1987 (edited, with Paul Knitter)
THREE FAITHS, ONE GOD, 1989 (edited, with Edmund Meltzer)
GANDHI’S SIGNIFICANCE FOR TODAY, 1989 (edited, with Lamont Hempel)
AN INTERPRETATION OF RELIGION, 1989, 2004 (2nd edn)
DISPUTED QUESTIONS IN THEOLOGY AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION,
1993
THE METAPHOR OF GOD INCARNATE, 1993
THE RAINBOW OF FAITHS, 1995
THE FIFTH DIMENSION, 1999
DIALOGUES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, 2001, 2010 (reissued)
JOHN HICK: An Autobiography, 2002
THE NEW FRONTIER OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE, 2006, 2010 (reissued)
WHO OR WHAT IS GOD? 2008
BETWEEN FAITH AND DOUBT, 2010
Religious Pluralism and
the Modern World
An Ongoing Engagement with
John Hick
Edited by
Sharada Sugirtharajah
University of Birmingham, UK
Palgrave
macmillan
Selection and editorial matter © Sharada Sugirtharajah 2012
Chapters © their individual authors 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-29669-5
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First published 2012 by
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Dedicated to John Hick in whose honour these essays
have been written
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on Contributors x
Introduction: Religious Pluralism – Some Issues 1
Sharada Sugirtharajah
Part I Religious Pluralism and Global Perspectives
1 Religious Pluralism and the Need for an
Interreligious Theology 19
Perry Schmidt-Leukel
2 Which Is It? Religious Pluralism or
Global Theology? 34
Marilyn McCord Adams
3 Virtuous Comparativists Are Practicing Pluralists 46
Paul F. Knitter
4 Pluralism Revisited 58
Keith Ward
5 Faith Triumphant? The Problem of a Theology
of Supersession 68
Julius Lipner
Part II Religious Pluralism and Practical Concerns
6 The Value of the Symbolic Jesus for Christian
Involvement in Interfaith Dialogue 83
Alan Race
7 Interreligious Prayer between Christians and
Muslims 95
Gavin D’Costa
8 Interfaith Spirituality or Interspirituality? A New
Phenomenon in a Postmodern World 107
Ursula King
vii
viii Contents
9 The Mahatma and the Philosopher: Mohandas Gandhi
and John Hick and Their Search for Truth 121
Sharada Sugirtharajah
Part III Theological and Philosophical Orientations
10 John Hick: Theologian or Philosopher of Religion? 137
Chester Gillis
11 Humane Spirit: Towards a Liberal Theology of
Resistance and Respect 152
George M. Newlands
12 Mediating Relativism and Absolutism in Tillich’s and
Hick’s Theories of Religious Truth 164
Mary Ann Stenger
13 John Hick’s Pan(en)theistic Monism 176
Yujin Nagasawa
14 Faith, Evidence, and Evidentialism 190
Stephen T. Davis
15 Keeping Hick from Hell: Answering the
Isolationist Objection to Hick’s Universalism 204
Timothy Musgrove
16 Suffering As Transformative: Some Reflections on
Depression and Free Will 215
Anastasia Philippa Scrutton
Part IV John Hick’s Writings and Their Impact
17 The Revival of Philosophy of Religion and the
Contribution of John Hick to This 229
Paul Badham
18 John Hick and Chinese Religious Studies 241
Wang Zhicheng
19 John Hick’s Religious Interpretation of Religion:
An Unexplored Resource for Religious Educators 253
Geoff Teece
Index 267
Acknowledgements
I have had the good fortune of having been one of John Hick’s students,
and I would like to express my deep gratitude to John, whose profound
scholarship and graciousness continue to have an impact on me and
many others. I would like to thank all the contributors not only for
readily accepting the invitation to contribute to a volume of essays in
honour of Professor Hick, but also for their enthusiastic participation in
the project, and for sending their chapters on time. My sincere thanks
go to Priyanka Gibbons, the senior commissioning editor of Palgrave
Macmillan, for taking a keen interest in this project from its inception
and then seeing it through with great care and efficiency; to Melanie
Blair for promptly sorting out editorial queries; and to Ralph Broadbent
for formatting the essays with utmost care. I am deeply grateful to my
long-time friend Lorraine for her invaluable guidance and ongoing sup-
port of my work. Finally, my deepest gratitude to my husband Sugi for
his unfailing intellectual support and personal care and interest, with-
out which I wouldn’t have been able to embark on any of my academic
pursuits.
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