An Interpretation of Religion

The fullest statement of Hick's pluralist theory of religion, developed from his Gifford Lectures of 1986–87. Hick argues that the great world religions are different, culturally conditioned human responses to one ultimate reality, which he calls the Real. Borrowing Kant's distinction between things in themselves and things as they appear, he separates the Real in itself, which lies beyond our concepts, from the Real as humanly experienced. It is known through personae, such as Yahweh, Allah or Vishnu, and impersonae, such as Brahman, the Dao or the Buddhist dharmakāya. He holds that the universe is religiously ambiguous, open to both naturalistic and religious interpretation, and that religious experience is a form of 'experiencing-as'. The traditions share a soteriological criterion: how far they transform people from self-centredness to Reality-centredness, as shown in their saints and moral fruits. Many doctrinal differences are read as mythological rather than literal truth. Critics argue that a Real beyond all description is too empty to do this work, and that each tradition would reject his framework.

It is the classic philosophical case for religious pluralism, and the work that later debates about how the world's religions relate to one another keep returning to.