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The Pluralist Paradigm in the Christian Theology of Religions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Gavin D'Costa
Gavin D'Costa
Affiliation:
West London Institute of Higher Education, Lancaster House, Borough Road, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 5DU
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Extract

With increasing contact and knowledge of non-Christian religions and in the light of colonialist missionary endeavours, a number of Christians have recently advocated what I shall call a pluralist approach to non-Christian religions. This pluralist paradigm may be characterised as one which maintains that non-Christian religions can be equally salvific paths to the one God, and that Christianity's claim to be the only way (exclusivism), or the fulfilment of all other religions (inclusivism), should be rejected for good theological, phenomenological, and philosophical reasons. This view is shared by Christians from different denominations, and is best expressed in the works of Professors John Hick, Paul Knitter, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and Mr Alan Race.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , May 1986 , pp. 211 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1986

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References

page 211 note 1 Hick, J., God and the Universe of Faiths (Collins, Fount Paperback, 1977)Google Scholar, God Has Many Names (Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1982)Google Scholar, Death and Eternal Life (Collins, Fount Paperback, 1976)Google Scholar, The Second Christianity (SCM, London, 1983)Google Scholar, ‘Religious Pluralism’, in ed. Whaling, F., The World's Religious Traditions (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1984) pp. 147–164 (subsequently and respectively referred to as GUF, GMN, DEL, TSC, WRT)Google Scholar; Knitter, P., No Other Name? (SCM, London, 1985) (= NON)Google Scholar; Smith, W. C., The Faith of Other Men (Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1972)Google Scholar, The Meaning and End of Religion (SPCK, London, 1978)Google Scholar, Towards a World Theology (Macmillan, London, 1980) (= TFM, MER, TWT)Google Scholar; Race, A., Christians and Religious Pluralism (SCM, London, 1983) (= CRP).Google Scholar

page 212 note 2 Hick, GUF, p. 122; and also Knitter, , NON, p. 140, ch. 8Google Scholar; Smith, , TWT, p. 171Google Scholar, TFM, p. 138; Race, CRP, ch. 8.

page 212 note 3 Hick, GUF, ch. 9; Knitter, , NON, p. 147.Google Scholar

page 212 note 4 Knitter, , NON, p. 167.Google Scholar

page 212 note 5 Hick, GUF, ch. 11, 12, GMN, ch. 7; Knitter, NON, ch. 8; Smith, , TWT, pp. 168ff; Race, CRP, ch. 5.Google Scholar

page 213 note 6 Hick, , GMN, p. 57Google Scholar; Knitter, , NON, p. 185Google Scholar; Smith, , TWT, p. 178.Google Scholar

page 213 note 7 Race, , CRP, p. 135.Google Scholar

page 213 note 8 Hick, GUF, ch. 10; Knitter, NON, ch. 1; Smith, TFM; Race, CRP, ch. 1.

page 213 note 9 Knitter, , NON, pp. 68–69Google Scholar; Race, and Smith, , CRP, pp. 101, 147.Google Scholar

page 213 note 10 Hick, DEL, GUF, ch. 2; Race, , CRP, p. 146.Google Scholar

page 213 note 11 Knitter, , NON, p. 269.Google Scholar

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page 215 note 18 Hick, , ‘Pluralism and the Reality of the Transcendent’, Christian Century, 98, 1981, pp. 46–47Google Scholar; TSC, ch. 1, especially p. 19.

page 215 note 19 Hick, , Faith and Knowledge (1957), (Collins, Fount Paperback, 1978), pp. 225, 233.Google Scholar

page 215 note 20 Knitter, , NON, p. 225Google Scholar. He uses Race's criticisms of Troeltsch against Race himself. This criticism may not be applied to Hick for he does retain the ontological status of Christian language.

page 215 note 21 Knitter, , NON, p. 142.Google Scholar

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page 217 note 26 D. Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 1st paragraph, part 4.

page 217 note 27 Byrne, P., ‘John Hick's Philosophy of Religion’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 35, 1982, p. 301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 217 note 28 Wedberg, A., A History of Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1982), Vol. 2, p. 174.Google Scholar

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page 218 note 31 I have developed these criticisms further in ‘John Hick's Copernican Revolution: Ten Years After’, New Blackfriars, July/August 1984, pp. 323–31, and in a response to Loughlin's, G. defense of Hick, (both articles), in New Blackfriars, March 1985, pp. 127–137.Google Scholar

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page 219 note 33 Knitter, , NON, p. 68, my emphasis.Google Scholar

page 219 note 34 Knitter, , NON, p. 240, footnote 61, my emphasis.Google Scholar

page 220 note 35 I have tried to develop and defend the inclusivist approach to these questions in my forthcoming book, Theology and Religious Pluralism (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986).Google Scholar

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page 221 note 37 Hick, , TSC, p. 86Google Scholar; Knitter, , NON, p. 118.Google Scholar

page 222 note 38 Kraemer, H., The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (Edinburgh House Press, London, 1938), pp. 138–139.Google Scholar

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page 222 note 40 Race, , despite his Christology, later acknowledges the cognitive status of language and symbols, CRP, p. 147.Google Scholar

page 223 note 41 Knitter, , NON, p. 228.Google Scholar

page 223 note 42 Smith, , TWT, pp. 101, 126.Google Scholar