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John Hick's Copernican Revolution: Ten Years After

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Gavin D. Costa
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It was in 1973, in his book God and the Universe of Faiths, that Professor John Hick argued for a Copernican revolution in the Christian theology of religions. His argument met quite a lot of criticism, and it is fairly widely thought that the debate is today a dead one. How true is this?

In his book he characterised as “Ptolemaic” the view which has been allegedly held for at least the last “fifteen centuries” which proclaims that “all men, of whatever race or culture, must become Christians if they are to be saved”. He cites the Decree of the Council of Florence (1438—1445) which upheld the traditional Catholic position, summed up in the axiom, extra eeclesiam nulla salus—there is no salvation outside the Church. He maintains that Vatican II and modem theologians such as Karl Rahner propound further epicycles of the same Ptolemaic view, as they still assume “without question that salvation is only in Christ and through incorporation into his mystical body, the Church”. He feels that there is little difference between Roman Catholics and Protestant positions on this issue.

The Ptolemaic system held that the earth was at the centre of the universe and explained the movement of the planets (which did not conform to the theory) through “epicycles”. The increasing number of epicycles rendered the Ptolemaic view less and less plausible until finally the Copernican view, in its simple explanation of the facts by the theory that the sun rather than the earth was the centre of the universe, replaced it.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 65 , Issue 769-770 , July 1984 , pp. 323 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 God and the Universe of Faiths (subsequently referred to as GUF p. 120 (page numbering is that of the Fount edition of 1977).

2 ibid. p. 126.

3 ibid. p. 131.

4 ibid. p. 122.

5 ibid. p.141.

6 ibid. p. 147 and ‘On Grading Religions’, Religious Studies Vol. 17, 1981, p. 462.

7 D. Forrester, ‘Professor Hick and the Universe of Faiths’, Scottish Journal of Theology Vol 29, (Feb. 1976), pp. 65-72; J. Lipner, ‘Does Copernicus help?’, Religious Studies Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 1977), pp. 243-248.

8 J. Hick, Towards a Philosophy of Religious Pluralism (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980) p. 142. Subsequently referred to as TAPRP.

9 TAPRP, p. 145.

10 J. Hick, ‘The Theology of Religious Pluralism’, Theology Vol. LXXXVI, Sept. 1983, p. 337.

11 ibid. p. 337.

12 For a discussion of the biblical view that runs counter to Hick’s characterisation of the Christian tradition, cf: M. Cyriac, Meetings of Religions (Madras, 1982), esp. ch 1 and ch 2; H.R. Schlette, Towards a Theology of Religions (Frieburg: Herder/London: Burns and Oates, 1966). For an assessment of the early Fathers on this question, once again running against Hick’s reading of the tradition, cf: Henri de Lubac, The Church: Paradox and Mystery (E.T., Ireland: Ecclesia Press, 1969); P. Hacker, ‘The Religions of the Gentiles as viewed by the Fathers of the Church’, ZMR, Oct., 1970, No. 4; J. Daniélou, Holy Pagans of the Old Testament (E.T., London: Longman’s, Green and Co., 1957). Introduction; J. Dupuis, ‘The Cosmic Christ in the Early Fathers’, Indian Journal of Theology XV, July-Sept., 1966; M. Cyriac, op. cit., ch. 3.

13 Denzinger 714. From Fulgentius’ De Fide ad Petrum ch 38, (PL, 65,704A)

14 Y. Congar, The Wide World my Parish (E.T., London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1961), p.94.

15 J. Neuner, ‘Votum Ecclesia’ in ed. G. Gispert-Sauch, God’s Word Among Men (Delhi: Vidyajoti, 1973), p. 149. I am indebted to Neuner on this point.

16 St. Augustine, Contra duas epistolas Pelag. Book III, ch. 6 (iv)ff. in ed.. P. Schaff, Library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers of the Church (Michigan: Erdman’s Pub. Co., 1978), pp. 404ff.

17 Neuner, op. cit., p. 149 and footnote 12.

18 Denzinger 1647ff, 3821, 3866ff.

19 eds. J. Neuner and J. Dupuis, The Christian Faith (Dublin: Mercier Press, 1976), pp. 272-278, for an introduction to the three relevant Conciliar documents.

20 GUF, p.127.

21 ibid. p. 128.

22 For the explication and development of Rahner’s theory of the anonymous Christian see the Theological Investigations Vol. 5 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd/New York: Seabury Press, 1966), ch. 6; Vol. 6 (1969), ch. 16 and 23; Vol. 9(1972), Ch. 9; Vol. 12 (1974), ch. 9; Vol. 14(1976), ch. 17; Vol. 16(1979), ch. 4 and 13; Vol. 17 (1980), ch. 5.

23 GUF, p. 177.

24 Hick, Religious Studies op. cit., p. 467.

25 GUF, p.131.

26 ibid. p. 131.

27 See my forthcoming article, ‘Karl Rahner’s Anonymous Christian A Reappraisal’ in Modern Theology (1985).

28 GUF, ch. 3 and 6.

29 J. Hick, ‘Pluralism and the Reality of the Transcendent’, Christian Century Jan. 21st 1981, pp.47-48.

30 P. Almond, ‘John Hick’s Copernican Theology’, Theology Vol. LXXXVI, Jan. 1983, p. 39-40 (my emphasis).

31 (Fount, 1979). esp. pp. 458-465. Subsequently referred to as DEL.

32 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1981). esp. pp. 39-52. Subsequently referred to as EE.

33 EE p.51 Significantly, this is basically the same position found in Hick’s pre-Copernican days (and nevertheless universalist!) in Evil and the God of Love (Fount.1979. First ed. 1966).

34 DEL. p. 464.

35 ibid. p. 464.

36 Hick, Theology op. cit., p. 338.

37 Theology, Religious Studies and the Scottish Journal of Theology have all printed articles on this debate in the last year (1982-83). New Blackfriars last January printed an article by Dan Cohn-Sherbok suggesting a Copernican revolution in Judaism. Hasan Askari has proposed a similar Copernican shift in Islam, and both these scholars acknowledge their debt to John Hick. So far three doctoral dissertations have been written on Hick’s theology of religions, and another is in progress.