(Originally written April 17, 2007 in Book 15)
Class Notes
The Grace & Redemption Debate
Is Christianity the only way?
Response - the only way to what?
Salvation means different things in different religions.
Salvation meaning:
Christianity -> Atonement
Islam -> Test of Obedience
Zoroastrianism -> Dualism
Hindu Vedanta -> Atman = Brahman
Hindu Bhakti -> Reliance on deity
Buddhism -> Nirvana
Jainism -> Floating to the top
Jodo Shin-Shu -> Escape to Pure Land
Yoga -> Divorce spirit from body
Yoga is an adaptation of the Hindu school Samkhya.
Samkhya is:
1) atheistic
2) Dualistic
- Purusha: Soul
- Prkriti: Matter
3) Pluralistic
The point of Samkhya is to remove your Purusha from the constraints of Prkriti.
Yoga took this general idea and added the god Ishvara.
Ishvara is immovable.
The breathing and postures of Yoga are attempting to imitate Ishvara's immovability.
To practice Yoga for the physical benefits is the same as taking communion for the nutritional value of the bread and wine.
Different religions have different ends and different means to attaining those ends.
Pluralism
Radical Pluralism: J.A. DiNoia & Stephen Heim
-Each religion has its own understanding of salvation and is self-contained without overlap
Heim: "Nirvana - communion with God are contradictory only if we assume that one or the other must be the sole fate for all human beings"
Problem: Heim is not true to the religions here
Problems with radical pluralism:
1) Exclusivity
2) There cannot be mutually exclusive true practices
3) We would have to make up concepts for this methodology because it is self-setting
John Hick's Forced Pluralism
1) All religions serve to bring people into contact with "The Real"
2) No religion has an edge on any others
3) All religions do an equal job of bringing their followers into relationship with the Real
4) The actual beliefs of religions differ from each other.
5) The Real is beyond all human words and concepts
6) All religions are legitimate ways to the Real
Hick on exclusive religions: Since salvation is not confined to Christianity we must reject all the old exclusivist dogma. This has in fact been done by most thinking Christians, though exceptions remain, mostly within the extreme Protestant fundamentalist constituencies.
Hick's Model
Buddhism: stripped of its Buddhist concepts
Hinduism: stripped of its Hindu concepts
Islam: stripped of its Islamic concepts
Christianity: stripped of its Christian concepts
All of these point man towards the real
Hick limits his model to Axial Age and Post-Axial Age religions (6th century B.C. on)
Heim's critique of Hick: The Real is like a cardboard cutout on the boardwalk. Put your head in the hole and you are in contact with the real.
Sumner Twiss' defense of Hick
Higher order theory with a Lower order description
Lower order descriptions that are in each religion may not fit the higher order theory. But that just means that lower order descriptions need to be changed to fit the scheme.
Iranaeus (2nd Century Apologist) vs. Gnostics
Gnosticism:
Monotes (awareness) -> Denotes (otherness) -> Monas (one-ness)-> Hen (other)
Iraneaus' satire of gnosticism
Gourd -> Utter-Emptiness -> Cucumber -> Melon -> The writings of Valentinus
Hick, like Valentinus is completely contrived. The description is totally arbitrary.
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