In his theodicy, Hick not only claims that there is no such thing as pointless suffering in the world, but that despite there being evil in the world, God still exists and he is still kind and omnipotent since the evil that he allowed helps people in their development and soul-making.
What did John Hick believe in?
· What does John Hicks believe about God and suffering? In other words, God allows suffering so that human souls might grow or develop towards maturation. For Hick , God is ultimately responsible for pain and suffering , but such things are not truly bad.
Why does Hick think we need pain suffering and evil?
John Hick argues that God is right to permit evil to strike randomly and sometimes disproportionately. The alternative would be a world where everyone got "poetic justice" - only the evil they deserved and needed and no more. In this sort of world, suffering would be like a lesson from God telling you exactly how you were supposed to behave.
What is Hick’s view of God?
Argument Because of imperfections in the world and humanity, evil exists. God created humanity to be imperfect; Therefore, God and evil co-exist. Hick’s theodicy states that in order for humanity to improve on their soul and growth, we need pain and suffering to aid us in this process.
What is faith according to Hick?
· John Hick’s idea of “soul-making” is about the greatest good. Hick believes that humans are created to explore and develop into better people. Hick’s idea of soul-making …
What did John Hick say about suffering?
John Hick transformed the shape of thinking about theodicy in contemporary philosophical theology with his conception of the world as a “vale of soul‐making.”1 Suffering, he argues, enables our development as spiritually and morally mature persons. Without suffering we could not cultivate virtue and character.
What is Pascal's observation about God?
Pascal — French philosopher, scientist, mathematician and probability theorist (1623-1662) — argues that if we do not know whether God exists then we should play it safe rather than risk being sorry.
Does John Hick believe in free will?
' In summary, Hick offers a free will theodicy according to which the freedom good of virtuous character formed through free actions productive of virtue is made achievable only by God's permission of natural evils.
What religion was John Hick?
Hick initially went to Bootham School in York which is Quaker, and then pursued a law degree at the University of Hull, but, having converted to Evangelical Christianity, he decided to change his career and he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh in 1941.
What is the conclusion of Pascal's wager?
Pascal draws the conclusion at this point that you should wager for God. Without any assumption about your probability assignment to God's existence, the argument is invalid. Rationality does not require you to wager for God if you assign probability 0 to God existing, as a strict atheist might.
Which of the following best summarizes Pascal's argument?
Pascal's Wager is best summarized by which of the following? There is more to gain and less to lose by believing in God.
How does free will cause suffering?
This could be from moral evil, where humans cause bad things through their own actions, for example by hurting or killing someone else. This causes suffering to others but also bad karma for the person who commits the evil act. As a result, the person might suffer in their next life.
How does John Hick solve the problem of evil?
In his theodicy, Hick argues that without free will, all people would be nothing more than a “pet animal” in a cage. Hick asserts that God had to create people with the ability to do evil, for otherwise, people would not be able to participate in “soul-making” which is what serves to bring men closer to God.
What is the problem of evil according to Johnson?
He defines this “Problem of Evil” in the following dilemma: “If God is perfectly loving, he must wish to abolish evil; and if he is all- powerful, he must be able to abolish evil.
What is Hick's theodicy?
Hick's theodicy is based on the same one as Irenaeus. However, Hick further developed the theory, called the 'vale of soul-making. ' Hick agreed that humans were created as imperfect from the start, so that they could grow and develop into the "likeness" of God.
What is mediated awareness according to Hick?
FAITH AS MEDIATED AWARENESS. According to Hick, the ordinary religious believer does not report a. faith which is assent made through an act of will to certain. theological propositions, as the propositional view asserts.
What is John Hick's Copernican revolution in religion?
The essence of Hick's Copernican revolution is that the recognition of the religious value of other religions 'involves a shift from the dogma that Christianity is at the centre to the realization that it is God who is at the centre, and that all the religions of mankind, including our own, serve and revolve around him ...
What did Hick believe?
During this time he began to believe that sincere adherents of other faiths experience the Transcendent just as Christians do, though with variances due to cultural, historical, and doctrinal factors. These experiences led him to develop his pluralistic hypothesis, which, relying heavily on Kant ’s phenomenal/noumenal distinction, states that adherents of the major religious faiths experience the ineffable Real through their varying culturally shaped lenses. Hick’s pluralistic considerations then led him to adjust his theological positions, and he subsequently developed interpretations of Christian doctrines, such as the incarnation, atonement, and trinity, not as metaphysical claims but as metaphorical or mythological ones. However, despite Hick’s changes theologically, many of his underlying philosophical positions remained largely intact over the course of his long career.
What doctrines did Hick develop?
Hick’s pluralistic considerations then led him to adjust his theological positions, and he subsequently developed interpretations of Christian doctrines, such as the incarnation, atonement, and trinity, not as metaphysical claims but as metaphorical or mythological ones.
What is religious interpretation?
Religious interpretation is thus a perception of significance rather than an inference from or to certain propositions. As Hick further explains,
How is religious knowledge gained?
Instead, Hick argues that for the ordinary believer, religious knowledge is gained by experiencing God for oneself. Religious knowledge, then, is mediated through our experience of the world, in much the same way that the rest of the knowledge we have about the world is gained.
What is the difference between faith and other forms of knowledge?
According to Hick, the difference between faith and other forms of knowledge is not one of kind but of the level of reality known. Just as ethical knowledge supervenes on natural knowledge, so too religious knowledge supervenes on both ethical and natural knowledge.
When did Hick retire from Claremont?
and Japan, including his Claremont colleague, Masao Abe. In 1992 , at the age of seventy, Hick retired from Claremont and moved back to Birmingham.
How many children did John Hick have?
While at Cornell the Hicks had two sons: Mark, born in 1957, and Peter, born toward the end of their time in Ithaca.
What is John Hick's evil and the God of Love about?
In John Hick’s Evil and the God of Love, Hick attempts to justify the existence of evil in his own Theodicy. Hick’s “soul-making” theodicy” attempts to defend the existence of God with an understanding and acceptance of the existence of evil. Hick acknowledges that there is a knowledgeable separation between God and people, ...
What is the theological problem of evil?
The theological problem of evil refers to the problem that comes with a world that acknowledges an “all good” and “all powerful” God, yet evil and pain are still prominent. If God is omnibenevolent and omnipotent, then why does evil still exist? In John Hick’s Evil and the God of Love, Hick attempts to justify the existence of evil in his own Theodicy. Hick’s “soul-making” theodicy” attempts to defend the existence of God with an understanding and acceptance of the existence of evil. Hick acknowledges that there is a knowledgeable separation between God and people, and he states that people are morally flawed and “immature creatures”.
Is humanity good or evil?
To start with, humanity is both good and evil, both spirit and body and both material and immaterial. Humanity seems to be in revolt against both God and humanity. Then, God is deus duplex, meaning that while He provides grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, there is wrath and darkness in the world. The world is equally a paradox, therefore, both have been created and has fallen, both are good and corrupt and has the potential for good and evil. And despite all of this, God can still do good in the evil world and culture … which He, by the way,
What did Benjamin Franklin think of Jonathan Edward?
Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edward were both philosopher and had similar views in terms of informing people the right way to live in order to be successful and get salvation by reforming their mind in their life. As Jonathan Edward says in the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” “ Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraints, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable” (432). That implies, if
Is suffering a mystery?
At the same time, suffering remains always a mystery to understand. But suffering could be understood when it is connected with redemption. For Aquinas, evil is the privation of good, as is seen above, there immediately arises the question whether is it absolute privation? If it is absolute privation how could it bring something good out of evil? Pope John Paul II says that evil is privation, but it becomes not as the total privation or total absence of good.
Is evil the nature of mankind?
The predisposition that evil is the nature of mankind is a categorical truth. Arguers with this statement would state that there is kindness and light in everybody. These romantic critics are too naive to believe what is right in front of them in day to day life. Although these ignorant statements are true, it is very hard for a person to overcome their evil impulses. Not only it is hard but when they do, someone else inflicts evil upon them.
What does Hick believe about the future?
Hick responds to the question of the ultimate future through faith. Hick believes that humans were created as imperfect beings from the beginning to grow and develop into the “likeness” of God. Undoubtedly, the imperfect creation value contradicts the theological teaching about human creation.
What is John Hick's idea of soul making?
Hick believes that humans are created to explore and develop into better people. Hick’s idea of soul-making reconciles sin and suffering to the seamless love of God. “Soul-making” is a process in which a bad or evil occurrence generates something moral and spiritual.
What does Hick mean by religious teaching?
Religious teaching indicates that humans were created in the image and likeness of God. However, Hick highlights that humans are free and autonomous people who have the power to transform into the finite likeness of God. Meaning, men have the power to rebuild their character and spiritual life.
What does Hick mean by "power to rebuild"?
Meaning, men have the power to rebuild their character and spiritual life . Somehow Hick thinks that the rampant immorality is significant for the “soul-making” process. In this way, humans can detect evil and refrain from it. Therefore, Hick insists that man is free to make mistakes and learn to become better creation.
What is John Hick's explanation of God?
God, according to Hick, is at one time “independent of our minds” [25] and any ability to describe him, but at the same time immanent in the perceptions God allows us to experience.
What did Hick believe?
Hick believed that if there is just one God who is maker and Lord of all, then these people “must all be worshipping the same God.”. Another way to look at this is that Hick wanted to “allow for religion as a whole to be true,” not just human projections or wishful thinking. [17]
Why did John Hick come up with the idea of the real?
He had to come up with the Real in order to make sense of his personal experiences, along with the experiences of others. It also seems that Hick wanted to keep a foothold in Christianity, but without exclusivity, which is why he said in a response to Gerald Loughlin that he had “a commitment to try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as one who has revealed to many the possibilities of human existence in response to the ultimately Real.” [49] He called himself a Christian, but in the sense the he tried to live out the example of “agape” love shown by the actions of Jesus, but he could never accept that Jesus was/is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He did all this and influenced others with his way of thinking, and that is a big problem.
Why does John Hick question Christianity?
One of the reasons John Hick questions Christianity as the only true faith is because he doubts the words of Jesus as recorded in the fourth gospel, the book of John. As shown above, not all modern scholars agree with Hicks assumption that the book of John is flawed.
What does the Bible say about love?
The Bible is clear about one truth: God is love (1 John 4:8). But nowhere in the Bible does it say that “love is God.”. There is a big difference. On the other hand, John Hick tried to make the point that the very act of showing agape love was a manifestation of the Real.
What does Jesus say about the way, the truth, and the life?
For instance, in John 14:6 Jesus says that he is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that “no man cometh unto the Father but by me. ”. That would surely exclude any other god from coming along and saying the same thing and both are true. Yet, the way Hick puts it, one can’t get truth without distorting it.
Why is God beyond comprehension?
God is “beyond comprehension and inspection” because the God that we experience is only the thing that we perceive, not the “thing-in-itself.”. [26] Hick describes the Real as “transcategorial,” which means that God is “beyond our humans systems of concepts or mental categories.”.
What is Hick's deadly calculus?
Hick’s theodicy relies on a deadly calculus—namely, that all the evils and suffering in the world will be more than compensated for by the love, harmony, and reconciliation with God that is to come. In other words, the price in suffering is a pittance in comparison with the glory yet to come.
Why is theodicy important in Christianity?
Notwithstanding that the history of Christianity has been a relentless assault on rationality, Christian “theodicy” has been a tirel ess effort to provide a rational defense of the goodness of God in the face of the reality of evil. This is more than a tacit recognition that rational creatures cannot live by blind faith alone. Unfortunately, it is also a self-refuting move because it is logically impossible to assert simultaneously that (1) God is totally omnipotent; (2) God is perfectly good; and (3) evil exists in the world. To make any sense, one of these claims must either be overtly rejected or covertly subverted.
What does Hick believe about religion?
Hick supports the view of religious pluralism —the view that all religions have insight and truth into what is real, and no one religion is exclusively absolute. Different religions are culturally based. Hick emphasizes the epistemological aspects of faith over the act of will.
What is Hick's response to the Christian Science position?
Hick's response to the Christian Science position is that this belief contradicts Biblical Faith— a point of view that he simply assumes to be true without argument. On this supposition, then, on Hick's view, some other premise must be false.
What does Mackie argue about the universe?
Mackie argues that we could still be free and God could create the world in such a way that we "happen" always to make the right decision. The idea is that God could have the world predestined, but from our point of view we freely decide--the two events simply coincide. God might see the universe-process without time.
What is the fallacy of Augustine?
Hence, there is an existential fallacy involving all the premises in the dilemma. Augustine sees evil as the absence of goodness or the decay of good; evil is nothing in and of itself. Like temperature or sunlight exist, but the absence of them, cold and shadow, do not exist.
What is the Christian Science solution?
The Christian Science solution is to reject the premise that evil exists. What could this position mean? Possibly, from our limited perspective and intelligence we cannot see how the parts of the universe fit together for the total harmony of the good. "We cannot see the forest for the trees."
What is the problem of evil?
The problem of evil is most often posed as an argument as follows. The Problem of Evil: If God is perfectly good, then He must want to prevent evil. If God is all-powerful, then He can prevent evil. Evil exists. Therefore, God is either not perfectly good or God is not all-powerful, or both.
What is Hick's response to the world?
Hick's response is that the world must be seen as a place of soul-making; there could not be a place for soul-making in a permanent hedonistic paradise. I.e., he champions a method of Negative Theodicy: a theodicy, as discussed above, is the attempt to justify the fact of God's goodness with the fact of evil in the world. ...
Religion
Works
Early life
Later years
Early career
Academic career
Philosophy
Later life
Controversy
Retirement
Themes
Criticism
Significance
Story
- According to Hick, the story of the human fall is a mythological way of describing the present human situation. Humans are given a certain level of autonomy from their creator in virtue of being created at an epistemic distance from God. It is possible for humans to know God, but they can only do so by freely exercising a faith-response, which for ...
Titles
Example
Introduction
Influence