Religious Pluralism and John Hick

I picked up a thought provoking book from the library yesterday entitled A Christian Theology of Religions by John Hick. Hick is a very well known liberal Christian theologian and philosopher of religion. I have heard of him, but this is my first time actually reading his material. I haven't had a book captivate me this much for a long time. I started reading the book on the bus ride home; by 10 o'clock I read clear through its 150 pages. I approached this book knowing that its author had a very similar history to myself: he converted to Christianity in his mid/late teens, was involved in a more conservative/fundamentalist stream of Christianity, then gradually became weary of the narrowness and lack of sympathy towards questioning thought (as he puts it in another of his books, God Has Many Names). I picked up this book to explore the path which he took. Before I give a brief summary, I should note that I would not have been able to read this book properly back in first year university. Then I was still a foundationalist (an epistemological position), conservative Christian. But at this point in time, I have learned to read others empathetically, and try to really understand what they are saying. But I digress, onto the book.

His basic argument is this:
1. Christians are in general no better than people of other great world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism). Virtues and vices are evenly exhibited by people of all religions.
2. All the great world religions call us to transcend a self-centeredness to become re-centered on God/the Real.
3. Salvation is the transformation of individuals from self-centeredness to Real-centeredness.
4. Salvation, understood this way, is actually occuring to an equal extent in many world faiths.
5. There is thus one universal source of salvific transformation at work among many of the world religions.
6. God/the Real can be authentically experienced in terms of various different human concepts: Yahweh, Holy Trinity, Allah, Brahman, Tao, Shiva, Vishnu, etc... Culture and society in a way confine the way in which we experience God/the Real.
7. God/the Real is ineffable - unable to be adequately described using human language and concepts. This explains why there is such a diversity in human experiences of God/the Real (as personal, as impersonal).
8. Thus, Christianity is one among many authentic and valid responses to God/the Real.

This is Hick's basic argument. Of course, being a summary, it does not do it proper justice. I don't present this because I myself believe it - in fact, there are a number of places in his argument which I can't quite bring myself to agree with him. But regardless, I think it is a thoughtful, honest attempt to respond to the place of Christianity among a religiously diverse world.

If your first reaction isn't to throw him (or God forbid, me) into the fires of hell as a heretic, check out the book. It isn't long and it isn't written with technical jargon. It's stimulating and well worth the read.

Cheers for now.
Kev