Disputed Questions in Theology and the Philosophy of Religion.

Gillis, Chester

By John Hick. New Haven: Yale University, 1993. Pp. xi + 198. $22.50.

This collection of previously published essays covers a broad range of theological and philosophical issues under five headings: Epistemology, Christ and Christianity, Hints from Buddhism, Religious Pluralism, and Life and Death. The concise essays represent Hick's latest thinking on many issues with which he has been concerned for his entire career--conspicuous for its absence is any treatment of the theodicy problem. Readers of Hick's corpus are accustomed to his clarity, a quality that is honed to an art in his essays. Although many Christian theologians may disagree with his conceptions of Christology and religious pluralism, he has articulated and defended them well here. Some philosophers may take exception to his religious epistemology, arguing that it is a convenient combining of religion and epistemology, but he argues cogently for a transcendent dimension of reality.

The title reflects Hick's interest in challenging a wide array of Christian presuppositions. While he has done this well, he has done so sometimes on philosophical grounds and other times on theological grounds, and occasionally has employed a combination of these disciplines to make his point. It is left to the reader to determine whether he is a philosopher interested in religion or a theologian engaging philosophical thinking.

This collection is useful. For those as yet unfamiliar with Hick's work, it may serve as an introduction to the discussion of critical and controversial subjects in the philosophy of religion and theology. For those familiar with his extensive corpus begun in the 1950s, it offers concise, yet substantive contributions that summarize his position on a variety of important issues.