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Summary notes for Pluralism and Theology
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- Pluralism and Theology
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I made detailed notes for Pluralism and Theology. This includes AO1 notes with parts for AO2 (Evaluation)
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Inclusivism● Think that the effects of Jesus’ death on the cross is accessible to everyone even if they don’t
realise it
● Religious belief about the afterlife contrasted with exclusivism and pluralism
● Believe that you must at in accordance with the ethics of a religion to get into ‘The Good Place’
● If you led a blameless life by the standards of an inclusivist religion, but failed to believe in that
religion, you would be given access to a reward in the afterlife
● Religion’s only commandment was not to eat pork, someone that was a vegetarian for other
reasons would qualify
● Solves some of the problems that face exclusivists as good people who were never exposed to a
particular religion are given a pass for not believing
● Comes under fire from religious exclusivists that claim such a position is not supported by a
particular holy text
○ Texts require faith, belief, or active worship, to achieve a promised afterlife, which
seems to fly directly in the face of the inclusivist project
● Accept the idea that salvation is still possible for the individual who turns to a Christian faith
only after death
● End of human life is not the end of the opportunities to hear and respond to the gospel - perhaps
God gives people a chance, after death, to repent and turn to him before entering heaven
● Inclusiviss adopt the idea that God’s omnibenevolence leaves open a possibility of salvation even
for non-Christians
● Suggest that non-Christian religions hold a degree of truth and that God in his wisdom will make
allowances for those who sincerely choose to follow him but are doing so in the context of the wrong
religion
● May argue that the Christian message is diluted if there is the suggestion that Christ need not be
necessary for salvation. If grace can be acquired without the sacraments like confession and
Eucharist, is
● Pluralists may argue that inclusivism s still arrogant, stating that Christian belief is the best and
putting itself as the judge
20/01/23
‘I left Europe for India as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever
having ceased to be a Christian.’ – Raimon Panikkar
● Says that there is no right religion
Pluralism = view that there are many ways to salvation of which Christianity is one path – recognition of
all the attempts to understand the divine
Pluralism is the acceptance of all ideas no matter what`
● In order to reach the afterlife, you need to be a good member of your religion
● Elements of every religion are true, no one has the full picture
● Promotes the most tolerance
, ● What about people that convert during their lives?
● Many religions punish apostasy
● Might give rise to concerns that there are some religious practices which are actually immoral
and should not be condoned
John Hick
● Influenced by his exposure to multicultural life in Birmingham
● Experienced how people from a variety of religions would partake in worship, and decided there
could not be one religion that was superior to others
● Religious experience could be found across religions, all people are experiencing the same
reality in different ways
● Cultural differences that are responsible for the different lenses through which we discover
divine reality
● Blind man and the elephant story - Old Indian story
○ Nobody sees the full elephant
Outlines Hick’s understanding of ‘the Real’ - Cultural differences were responsible for the
different lenses through which we experience the divine reality
Why does Hick argue that all religions are equally valid? - All religions produce equally good
followers If Christianity were to accept that it is one of many valid religions, society would be
harmonious
Christianity must not put Christ as much as the centre as it currently does but put God as a whole
at the centre of its thought
‘If the Real cannot be known then the Real can never be itself to humans and humans cannot
develop a personal relationship with it.’
24/01/23
Christology - branch of Christia theology relating to the person, nature and role of Christ
Hick’s Christology
● Myths= pictorial ways of expressing the human relationship with ‘The Real’
● Early descriptions of Christ as Lord, Saviour, Son of God devotional in purpose rather than
attempt to make precise theological formulation. ‘Incarnation’ as a technical term to describe
Jesus as literally God prompted by John which is reaffirmed in Councils of Nicaea and
Chalcedon
● Problem of incompatible traits: If Jesus was fully divine then he would not be truly human
because he would know what was happening
● If Jesus did not have access to his divine consciousness, then he could not speak with authority
on matters of death and sin and so not truly God
● Instead, incarnation is metaphor that explains: God was acting through Jesus, In doing God’s
will he incarnated the ideal of human life lived in responsiveness to God, He incarnated agape
love that is a finite reflection of the infinite divine love
● Remove God as the necessary component, and you can make it applicable to all
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