Religious Pluralism and The Diversity of The Anthropomorphic Religious Experience

I recently sat down to write about my ideas on religious pluralism, the interpretation of religious texts and religious tolerance. I examined chapter three: Symbols of Faith, of Christian philosopher Paul Tillich's book, Dynamics of Faith (1957) as well as John Hick's thoughts on plurality of the religious experience.

John Hick is a Christian theologian as well as one of the foremost philosophers of religion to date. Hick rejects Christian exclusivism and instead promotes religious pluralism and universalism which in my eyes, is the only rational way to perceive religion, because when we actually look at the religions of the world, they are all equally valid contexts of experiencing, what John Hick refers to as, the 'Real' (transcendent reality). Out of all my online searching, sadly enough, Wikipedia provided the most thorough and complete synopsis of Hick's views on pluralism and since I am not writing an academic research paper, they will suffice.

"...Hick claims that knowledge of the Real (his generic term for Transcendent Reality) can only be known as it is being perceived. For that reason, absolute truth claims about God (to use Christian language) are really truth claims about perceptions of God... Furthermore, because all knowledge is rooted in experience, which is then perceived and interpreted into human categories of conception, cultural and historical contexts which inevitably influence human perception are necessarily components of knowledge of the Real. This means that knowledge of God and religious truth claims...are culturally and historically influenced; and for that reason should not be considered absolute" (Wikipedia.com).

Paul Tillich, like Hick, was a Christian Theologian who did an extensive amount of work in the philosophy of Christian existentialism. He also promoted the concept of religious pluralism and philosophized about salvation and universalism similar to Hick. With both of these well established views in the philosophy of religion and pluralism--I set out to analyze and add my own ideas upon them. Although it is quite lengthy in comparable to most of my posts, it will provide anyone who cares a little more insight into my pluralistic views about religion. The final essay can be found below through the link below.

Relgious Pluralism