John Hick's critical realism : challange or threat to Christian religious truth? : a general critique

Abstract

Before dealing directly with the subject under study, I would like to state that I cannot disdain my Christian and Catholic background, and that I am a believer. I am convinced that this statement is quite necessary at the very beginning of this thesis, because I fear that, in spite of all the cravings for neutrality and objectivity, it is extremely difficult not to see and judge things from one's own existential religious point of view. No matter how neutral or unprejudiced people may be, their consciousness (and thus their inner logic their method of assimilating knowledge, their epistemology) is formed/ fertilized and developed by the environment in which they grew up", rightly observes Herwig Arts. I would like also to say that I am definitely not a religious fundamentalist or a hard headed Christian. Neither do I consider myself a naive realist, having in mind, however, a quite different definition of this term from the way it is used by Hick. Moreover, I am extremely interested in all disciplines that can be of any help in my quest for truth. But it is my conviction that I have to strike a healthy balance between an inquisitive tendency that could lead to a deepening of faith and the 'temptation' to change or doubt one's own religious belief when faced by a serious challenge. By this statement I would like to emphasise my intention to tackle the theme of this thesis not strictly or even mainly from the philosophical but essentially from the theological point of view. By basically approaching the subject from a theological standpoint, I would be giving myself the freedom to treat it more globally rather than tackling it in an 'argument by argument' style, which would impose on me a strictly philosophical critique.