Philosophy of Religion
Lecturer: Dr Victoria Harrison
Department of Philosophy
University of Glasgow
Philosophy of Religion in a Multicultural World
We can interpret the world
• Religiously, or
• Naturalistically.
• Both are rational.
The world is religiouslyambiguous
Moreover, a number of religious
interpretations are available
• Monotheistic
• Non-theistic
Which religious view seems best often
depends on a person’s culture, for example
• Semitic
• Asian
If God exists…
• Why is neither God’s existence nor God’s
nature obvious?
• Why isn’t atheism foolish?
• The evidence neither for nor against the
existence of God is overwhelming.
If God exists, God is hidden
How hidden is God? The
evidence:
•
•
•
•
Loss of belief
Millions have no awareness of God
Believers sense God’s presence obscurely
Abundance of explanations for God’s
hiddenness
• Preoccupation of theists with arguments
for God’s existence
• God is hidden to virtually all within certain
cultures
Why would God choose to
make belief difficult?
• Has God sacrificed ‘goods of clarity’ for
‘goods of mystery’?
Explanations for God’s
hiddenness
• Human defectiveness theories
• Divine transcendence theories
• Hiddenness is a means to producing
goods of mystery.
Goods of mystery
• Genuine moral choice
Character formation
• The self as a project
If the existence and nature of
God were obvious
• Atheism would be irrational
• All rational people would be theists.
• This is not the case.
• Given the hiddenness of God, how should
we respond to religious diversity?
Three Types of Theory Responding to
Religious Diversity
• Religious Exclusivism
E.g., Alvin Plantinga
• Religious Inclusivism
E.g., Karl Rahner
• Religious Pluralism
Eg., John Hick
Religious Exclusivism
• Key claim: One religion is exclusively
correct.
• Its claims are exclusively true. If the claims
of other religions contradict these, then the
claims of the other religion must be false.
• It alone offers a way to salvation.
• Problems…
Religious Inclusivism
• One religion has the monopoly of religious
truth-claims.
• However, salvation may be available
through alternative traditions – despite
their false claims.
• Problems…
Religious Pluralism
• Key claim: All major religious traditions are
authentic.
• Different forms of religious pluralism:
• The most influential is John Hick’s.
The key claims of Hickean pluralism
• Each world religion has its own phenomenal reality.
• Since each world religion has its own phenomenal
reality, the claims of one world religion do not conflict
with those of another world religion.
• Each world religion is a response to the same thing: The
‘Real’.
• Responding to this phenomenal reality is, so far as we
can tell, equally effective in each world religion.
What does this entail?
• Each world religion is equally valid.
Problems with Hickean Pluralism
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•
•
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Truth
Experience
Appropriateness of responses
Religious language
END