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A Buddhist reconfiguration of John Hick's pluralistic hypothesis: a Madhyamaka perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2020

XUAN ZHAO Open the ORCID record for XUAN ZHAO [Opens in a new window]
XUAN ZHAO*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Macau, Avenida da Universidade, Macau, SAR, China
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In presenting his theory of religious pluralism, John Hick discussed the Buddhist concept of śūnyatā, emptiness, which he regarded as functionally equivalent to his postulated noumenal Real. This article introduces Hick's pluralistic hypothesis and reviews the major criticisms of his theory. It then investigates Hick's understanding of śūnyatā, before arguing that a Madhyamaka interpretation of śūnyatā, within the context of the Buddhist theory of ‘two truths’, differs considerably from Hick's understanding. The article suggests that the Madhyamaka interpretation of śūnyatā can be used to reconfigure Hick's pluralistic hypothesis, thereby avoiding the major criticisms Hickian pluralism faces, for it provides a new way of thinking about the relation between ultimate reality and the reality that we experience.

Type
Religious Studies Postgraduate Essay Prize
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 180 - 196
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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