Religious pluralism and Islam : a critical examination of John Hick's pluralistic hypothesis
Abstract
This dissertation
makes a
full
critical analysis of
John Hick's
pluralistic
hypothesis
(which
views great world religions as equally valid ways of salvation/liberation)
from
an
Islamic perspective.
To be
able to do this,
it begins
with a survey of
Islamic
responses to
the problem of religious
diversity by
employing
Alan Race's threefold taxonomy
(exclusivism, inclusivism
and pluralism).
Chapter
one concludes that al-Maturidi's
exclusivistic and
AtefI's inclusivistic
approaches cannot satisfactorily answer the matter
in
hand,
namely
"why
a compassionate and
loving God
should exclude totally or partially the
vast majority of
human beings from
salvation/liberation.
" Arkoun's
pluralistic viewpoint
comes closer to Hick's but is incomplete, immature
and radically reductionist.
The dissertation, then, starts examining
Hick's
pluralism.
First, it
gives an extensive
account of pluralism.
At the
fundamental level, Hick
argues
for the veridicality of one's
experience
in
order to establish the right of one to believe,
which
in turn creates the
problem of religious
diversity:
several religions claiming to offer the best
way of
salvation/liberation.
Before putting
forward his
own theory, Hick
examines other
naturalistic
(Durkheimian
and
Freudian) and religious
(exclusivistic
and
inclusivistic)
accounts of religions.
He dismisses them as unsatisfactory and poses
his
religious
interpretation
of religion.
Drawing the Kantian distinction
of noumenon and phenomenon,
Hick
claims that religions, with their personal gods and
impersonal
absolutes, are
phenomenal responses to the noumenal
Real. His
soteriological criterion of transformation
from "self-centredness to Reality-centredness" contends that great world religions are
equally valid ways of salvation/liberation.
Since the noumenal
Real is
totally
ineffable,
religious
language
should
be
understood mythically/metaphorically.
After
careful critical consideration,
the thesis concludes that Hick's
pluralism cannot
be
compatible with
Islam,
unless it is
modified
from three angles: the total ineffability
of the
Real
must
be
replaced with a
"moderate ineffability" (hence
moderate pluralism), a
hermeneutical
reading of the holy texts should replace
Hick's
mythical approach, and
Hick's
primarily ethical soteriological criterion needs to be
extended to include the ritual
aspect of religion.
This
modified version of
Hick's
pluralism
is
named
"moderate
pluralism.
" The thesis concludes that moderate pluralism
is
compatible with
Islam
and
offers a way
forward
particularly
in its dealing
with other religions.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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