Abstract
In 'The Presuppositions of Religious Pluralism and the Need for Natural Theology' I argue that there are four important presuppositions behind John Hick's form of religious pluralism that successfully support it against what I call fideistic exclusivism. These are i) the ought/can principle, ii) the universality of religious experience, iii) the universality of redemptive change, and iv) a view of how God (the Eternal) would do things. I then argue that if these are more fully developed they support a different kind of exclusivism, what I call rational exclusivism, and become defeaters for pluralism. In order to explain rational exclusivism and its dependence on these presuppositions I consider philosophers J.P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, and Alvin Plantinga, who offer arguments for their forms of exclusivism but I maintain that they continue to rely on fideism at important points. I then give an example of how knowledge of the Eternal can be achieved.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 201-222 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Sophia |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Alvin Plantinga
- Fideism
- Fideistic exclusivism
- General revelation
- Immanuel Kant
- Inference
- Intuition
- J.P. Moreland
- John Hick
- Law of non-contradiction
- Nagarjuna
- Natural theology
- Ought/can principle
- Pluralism
- Post-Kantian theology
- Rational exclusivism
- Reason
- Redemption
- Religious experience
- Sensus divinitatis
- Special revelation
- Vasubandhu
- Vivekananda
- William Lane Craig
- William Rowe
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Religious studies
- Philosophy