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Concerning ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Beth Mackie
Affiliation:
Agnes Scott College, Georgia

Extract

John Hick's eschatological verification has continued to receive attention for twenty-five years. I would like to focus here on the changes in Hick's concept of eschatological verification in ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’ the implications of these changes for eschatological verification, and how these changes illustrate problem areas for Hick's theology.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

page 129 note 1 Hick, John, ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’, Religious Studies, XIII (06 1977).Google Scholar

page 129 note 2 Hick, John, Faith and Knowledge, 2nd. ed. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966), 160–99.Google Scholar See also Ayer, Alfred Jules, Language, Truth and Logic (New York: Dover Publications, 1952);Google Scholar and Hick, , ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’, pp. 192, 194.Google Scholar

page 129 note 3 Hick, , Faith and Knowledge, 2nd. ed., p. 178.Google Scholar

page 130 note 1 Ibid. p. 187. There is a kind of literalness in the expectation evoked by the journey parable in Hick's eschatological verification and his descriptions of post-mortem lives in other worlds in Death and Eternal Life (New York: Harper and Row, 1976) which seems strange at times, but itself presents no particular theological problems.

page 130 note 2 Ibid. pp. 198–9.

page 130 note 3 Hick, , ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’, pp. 194–5.Google Scholar

page 131 note 1 Ibid. p. 195.

page 131 note 2 Ibid. pp. 196–7.

page 131 note 3 Ibid. p. 199.

page 132 note 1 See Davis, Stephen T., ‘Theology, Verification, and Falsification’, International journal for Philosophy of Religion, 6 (spring 1975), 33;CrossRefGoogle ScholarNielsen, Kai, ‘Eschatological Verification’, Canadian journal of Theology, IX (10 1963); 281;Google Scholar and Audi, Robert, ‘Eschatological Verification and Personal Identity’, International journal for Philosophy of Religion, VII (no. 4, 1976), 408.Google Scholar Audi's objections were made to the original version but also apply here. See also Goulder, Michael and Hick, John, Why Believe in God? (London: S.C.M. Press, 1983).Google Scholar

page 132 note 2 Hick, , ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’, p. 198.Google Scholar

page 133 note 1 Ibid. p. 196.

page 133 note 2 Hick, John, ‘Religious Faith as Experiencing-As’, God and the Universe of Faiths (New York: Harper and Row, 1976).Google Scholar For a discussion of how one could recognize the fulfilment of theistic eschatological expectations, see Nielsen, , or Hepburn, Ronald in Christianity and Paradox (New York: Pegasus, 1958).Google Scholar

page 134 note 1 Hick, , ‘Eschatological Verification Reconsidered’, p. 195.Google Scholar

page 134 note 2 Cf. Flew, Anthony, ‘Theology and Falsification’, New Essays in Philosophical Theology, ed. Flew, Anthony and Maclntyre, Alasdair (New York: Macmillan, 1955), p. 107.Google Scholar