An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the TranscendentIn this classic work, prominent religious philosopher John Hick presents a global interpretation of religion, arguing for a religious response to our ambiguous universe and showing how the world’s different religions are culturally conditioned forms of that response. For this Second Edition, Hick addresses the major critics of his interpretation of religion, thereby enabling fresh discussion of his work. Praise for the first edition: “This book strengthens Hick’s position as one of the most significant thinkers of the second half of the twentieth century. . . . I highly recommend [it] to students of philosophy, history of religions, and comparative studies, as well as theology.”—Chester Gillis, Journal of Religion “The most persuasive philosophical advocacy for religious pluralism ever written."—Yandall Woodfin, Southwestern Journal of Theology “[This work] evinces Hick’s many virtues: ingenuity; fairness toward all arguments; deference to the standards of analytic philosophy; familiarity with Eastern as well as Western religions; and, not least, a clean, clear prose.”—Robert A. Segal, Christian Century “A leader in interfaith interpretation of religion, Hick has written what will probably become a classic. . . . Clear, readable, and comprehensive.”—Library Journal “Should be read by the adherents of all faiths.”—Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok |
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Indhold
Introduction | 1 |
2 Religion as a familyresemblance concept | 3 |
3 Belief in the transcendent | 5 |
4 Problems of terminology | 9 |
5 Outline of the argument | 12 |
PHENOMENOLOGICAL | 19 |
The Soteriological Character of PostAxial Religion | 21 |
2 Preaxial religion | 22 |
2 Braithwaite and Randall | 193 |
3 Phillips and Cupitt | 198 |
4 Penultimate issues | 201 |
5 The ultimate issue | 204 |
The Rationality of Religious Belief | 210 |
2 Theistic belief as a foundational natural belief | 213 |
3 Trusting our experience | 214 |
4 Complications | 220 |
3 The axial age | 29 |
4 The axial shift to soteriology | 32 |
SalvationLiberation as Human Transformation | 36 |
2 According to the Buddhist tradition | 41 |
3 According to the Christian tradition | 43 |
4 According to the Jewish and Muslim traditions | 47 |
5 Two possible objections | 51 |
The Cosmic Optimism of PostAxial Religion | 56 |
2 The temporal character of experience | 57 |
3 The eschatological character of the Semitic traditions | 61 |
4 The eschatological character of the Indian traditions | 64 |
5 Realised eschatology | 65 |
6 Darkness and light | 67 |
THE RELIGIOUS AMBIGUITY OF THE UNIVERSE | 71 |
Ontological Cosmological and Design Arguments | 73 |
2 The ontological argument | 75 |
3 Cosmological arguments | 79 |
4 Contemporary scientific theism | 81 |
5 The anthropic principle | 91 |
Morality Religious Experience and Overall Probability | 96 |
2 Religious experience | 99 |
3 Swinburnes probability argument | 104 |
The Naturalistic Option | 111 |
2 The challenge of evil to theism | 118 |
3 Conclusion | 122 |
EPISTEMOLOGICAL | 127 |
Natural Meaning and Experience | 129 |
2 Natural meaning | 134 |
3 Experiencingas | 140 |
Ethical and Aesthetic Meaning and Experience | 144 |
2 Aesthetic meaning | 151 |
Religious Meaning and Experience | 153 |
2 Faith as the interpretive element in religious experience | 158 |
3 Faith as the exercise of cognitive freedom | 160 |
4 Religion as cognitive filter | 162 |
5 Mystical experience | 165 |
Religion and Reality | 172 |
2 The realist intention of traditional religion | 175 |
3 Linguistic analysis and religious realism | 177 |
4 Realism and Hindu language | 180 |
5 Realism and Buddhist language | 183 |
Contemporary NonRealist Religion | 190 |
5 The problem of criteria | 223 |
6 The right to believe | 227 |
RELIGIOUS PLURALISM | 231 |
The Pluralistic Hypothesis | 233 |
2 The Real in itself and as humanly experienced | 236 |
3 Kants epistemological model | 240 |
4 The relation between the Real an sich and its personae and impersonae | 246 |
The Personae of the Real | 252 |
2 The phenomenological finitude of the gods | 257 |
3 The gods as personae of the Real | 264 |
The Hindu Krishna and the Jahweh of Israel | 267 |
5 The ontological status of the divine personae | 269 |
The Impersonae of the Real | 278 |
2 Brahman | 279 |
3 Nirvana | 283 |
4 Sunyata | 287 |
5 Unmediated mystical experience of the Real? | 292 |
CRITERIOLOGICAL | 297 |
Soteriology and Ethics | 299 |
2 Saintliness | 300 |
3 Spiritual and politicoeconomic liberation | 303 |
4 The traditions as productive of saints | 307 |
5 The universality of the Golden Rule | 309 |
The Ethical Criterion | 316 |
2 AgapeKaruna as the ethical criterion | 325 |
the examples of Christianity and Islam | 331 |
4 Ethics and religious belief | 337 |
Myth Mystery and the Unanswered Questions | 343 |
2 Expository myths | 347 |
3 The mythological character of language about the Real | 349 |
4 The mythological character of religious thought | 353 |
Theodicy as mythology | 359 |
The Problem of Conflicting TruthClaims | 362 |
2 Conflicting historical truthclaims | 363 |
3 Conflicting transhistorical truthclaims | 365 |
4 Conclusions | 372 |
The Future | 377 |
Reference Bibliography | 381 |
409 | |
414 | |
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An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent J. Hick Ingen forhåndsvisning - 2004 |