#john hick

The pluralist thinker John Hick invented the ‘Elephant Analogy.’ In this analogy, several blind men encounter an elephant for the first time. Each feels a different part of the animal, then attempts to determine the truth about the essence of its being. One man pats a leg and sees the elephant as a “living pillar.” Another man grasps the trunk and beholds a snake. The man who rubs the tusk believes the elephant to be a “sharp plow-share.” Though each individual expresses one important aspect of the whole reality, none comprehends the complete entity.

According to this analogy, one may attribute the differences among the world’s religions to mankind’s inability to grasp the infinite reality of God. Hick’s pluralistic theory places the ultimate divine reality beyond the particular deities of the various religions. This divine ultimate is not experienced directly but instead is filtered through the different historical and cultural lenses of mankind. Thus people encounter the same divine reality (Mohammed, Krishna, Jesus) differently because of their differing historical, cultural, or philosophical perceptions and biases. He further explains:

“These different personae are thus partly projections of the divine Reality into human consciousness, and partly projections of the human consciousness itself as it has been formed by particular historical cultures.”

For Hick, each religion is valid because each faith provides a genuine (though obviously limited) encounter with ultimate reality. While Hick’s pluralistic vision appeals to many for both its apparent tolerance and its attempted unification of religion, it is nevertheless fraught with serious problems.

The analogy is especially flawed, however, when viewed from the standpoint of historic orthodox Christianity. According to Christianity, God has personally entered the world of time and space in the historical person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1, 14, 18). This same Jesus makes exclusive claims to divine authority and possesses the prerogatives of deity which are incompatible with the homogenizing and accommodating views of religious pluralists (e.g., Jn. 8:58, 10:30). To accommodate pluralism’s unknowable God, Christianity would be forced to give up all of its distinctive doctrines, including the Incarnation, the Trinity, and the Atonement. Oxford theologian Alister E. McGrath notes,

“The identity of Christianity is inextricably linked with the uniqueness of Christ, which is in turn grounded in the Resurrection and Incarnation.”

If the analogy were to reflect historic Christianity, one would find the elephant healing the men’s blindness and personally introducing himself, for the Christian claim is that God is personally, intimately, uniquely, and decisively disclosed in the God-man, Jesus Christ.

Hence, the historic Christian faith consistently resists and defies all attempts to homogenize and mythologize its central truth-claims. The apostles saw Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and reported it as a historical-factual event: 

“Now brothers and sisters, let me remind you [once again] of the good news [of salvation] which I preached to you, which you welcomed and accepted and on which you stand [by faith]. By this faith you are saved [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose], if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain [just superficially and without complete commitment].

For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold], and that He was buried, and that He was [bodily] raised on the third day according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold], and that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep [in death]. Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely (prematurely, traumatically) born, He appeared to me also.” ~ The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection [1 Corinthians 5:1-8]

In conclusion, in regards to pluralism, according to the laws of logic and the historical veracity of Scripture, pluralism, no matter how popular and appealing, cannot be true.

《6.1.19》

《click for hq》

THE INGENIOUS PHILOSOPHY OF JOHN HICK: MAKING ROOM FOR NATURALISM & RELIGION

John Hick’s philosophy argues that the universe is inherently "religiously ambiguous". This means the exact same world can be interpreted equally well through either a religious or a naturalistic lens, with neither perspective being undeniably proven or disproven by scientific or empirical evidence alone.

Because Hick argues that neither a naturalistic nor a religious worldview can be rationally coercive, he creates room for both (1)Naturalism: Hick acknowledges that the physical universe is entirely real and that it can be studied via the scientific method. However, he challenges strict physicalism (the belief that the physical universe is all that exists) by pointing out that humans also possess profound moral, aesthetic, and spiritual experiences. (2)Religion: He suggests that these common spiritual and moral experiences—such as feeling a benign presence in meditation or prayer—are rational, valid reasons to believe in "the Real" (his term for the ultimate, transcendent divine). (3)The "Experience-As" Concept: Inspired by Kantian epistemology, Hick argues that we do not experience reality directly. Instead, we interpret the world "as" being natural or "as" being religious, making both positions fundamentally positions of faith.

AN ALTERNATE PATH TO MEANING: LIVING TRUE MYTHS

Hick argued that the ultimate divine reality (which he called "the Real") is completely beyond human comprehension and language. Therefore, all religious doctrines and scriptures are "mythological" rather than literal. He defined a "true myth" as a story or narrative that is not literally true, but is practically true because it successfully guides human beings toward spiritual and moral transformation (moving them from self-centeredness to reality-centeredness). UGA Open Scholar

The Concept of "Living True Myths"

Hick advocated for a metaphorical interpretation of religious texts, suggesting that no single religion's narrative is literally or exclusively true. (1)The Pointing Finger: Instead of taking meta-narratives—such as the Christian story of the virgin birth or the parting of the Red Sea—as literal scientific history, Hick viewed them as "fingers pointing to the moon." (2)True Mythologies: He defined a "true myth" as a poetic or metaphorical story that is not literally true but evokes the appropriate moral, emotional, and spiritual attitude toward the Ultimate. (3)Moving from Self-Centeredness: By "living within a true myth," a person continues to participate in a religious tradition and its community, allowing that story's framework to help them transition from a life of self-centeredness to reality-centeredness.

The Ultimate Reality: "The Real"

To unify the search for meaning across all cultures, Hick introduced the concept of the Real. (1)He argued that the ineffable, ultimate truth of the universe is beyond human comprehension. (2)The various gods of world religions (such as the Christian Trinity, Allah, or Hindu deities) are humanly perceived manifestations of this single, ultimate reality.

The Ultimate Criterion for Meaning

For Hick, the test of any myth or religious tradition is strictly practical. If a person's faith—whether Christian, Buddhist, or otherwise—is genuinely connecting them to Ultimate Reality, it will result in an actively compassionate and moral life, shifting them away from selfishness.

John Hick's Transformational Mystical Experiences & Pluralistic Theology: Philosopher John Hick (1922–2012) underwent his own transformative mystical experiences, characterized by an overwhelming sense of unity with the universe and a profound, benign friendliness in reality. These fleeting, yet deeply significant events shaped his mature philosophy, shifting him from fundamentalist Christianity to his famous pluralistic theology.

1. His Personal Mystical Experience

In the late 1960s, while engaging in civil rights work in Birmingham, Hick experienced a profound shift in consciousness. He described the experience as a dissolution of the boundary between the "self" and the "environment". He recalled:

"…the total universe of which I was part was friendly, benign, good, so that there could not possibly be anything to fear or worry about. It was a state of profound delight in being."

2. Transition from Evangelical to Pluralist

Prior to these events, Hick was a devout evangelical Christian. However, his personal transcendent experiences—coupled with working and worshiping alongside sincere, loving believers of other faiths—led him to a groundbreaking conclusion: the world’s major religions are different cultural paths to the exact same ultimate reality.

3. The Noumenal and Phenomenal "Real"

Drawing on Immanuel Kant’s philosophy, Hick concluded that the divine, which he called "The Real," is ineffable and beyond human comprehension. Humans only experience the "phenomenal Real" (the divine as it appears through our culturally conditioned lenses).

4. Pragmatic Verification

Philosophy of Religion, Living Myths, Orthopraxy & Compassion: John Hick’s pluralistic philosophy reimagines world religions as valid, historically-conditioned paths to a single transcendent Ultimate reality, termed "the Real". He argues that religious doctrines are poetic "living myths" and prioritizes orthopraxy (right living) and compassion over dogma as the true measure of a religion's value.

Living Within a "True Myth": In his book The Fifth Dimension, Hick coined the term "living within a true myth" to describe how one should engage with religion. This involves participating authentically in one's own religious tradition while understanding that its specific stories (e.g., the Christian narrative of Creation, Fall, and Redemption) are metaphorical "fingers pointing to the moon" rather than literal, absolute descriptions.

The Ethical Test: If all religious traditions are fundamentally human, mythic responses to the same reality, how do we determine their value? Hick proposed the "soteriological criterion": a living myth is verified by its fruits. Authentic religions "save" or transform individuals by moving them from a state of self-centeredness to reality-centeredness, resulting in a life of compassion, love, and ethical goodness.

Desmond Tutu on John Hick:

Introduction Throughout his retirement John Hick, the Philosopher of Religious Pluralism, collated a collection of papers in his home office, which had built up over the course of his career, and until now the contents of this collection remained unknown The immediate question facing any researcher into this collection is how to communicate their contents concisely? It so happens that in his…