Are you interested in any of the following issues?

If so, you might want to attend one of two panel-discussion programs to be offered this winter on the ideas of John Hick on the topics above. 

 

 

 

 Hick is a Philosopher of Religion and Theologian, whose career spans some six decades. He has doctorates from Oxford, Edinburgh, and has held professional posts at Cornell, Princeton, Claremont Graduate School (CA), and in Birmingham (England). He has lived and worked among people of extraordinary cultural diversity and religious beliefs, on several continents. He is the author or editor of nearly thirty books translated into sixteen languages. Ultimately his writings are concerned with “…the character of the universe, and the meaning of our human existence, with its unpredictable mixture of good and evil and happiness and misery…”

 

On John Hick’s website www.johnhick.org.uk, are the complete texts of 17 articles on diverse topics, among which are most of those listed above. These are the texts of lectures or sermons given, fairly recently, to various audiences: in British churches and schools; at a Center for the Study of Global Ethics; at the University of Birmingham, UK; at a Theological Society in Norwich, England; plus two lectures given, in February and March, 2005 – one each at the Institute for Islamic Culture, and the Iranian Institute for Interreligious Dialogue, in Tehran. 

You can download any of the mentioned 17 articles and read it prior to, or after, the corresponding discussion of the topics listed above. We urge you to do this. Also, on Hick’s website, you will find titles of his books in print, books not in print, and books about him – with links to other relevant sites.

 

John Hick’s ideas are penetrating and occasionally ‘cage-rattling,’ but his style is not confrontational – even as judged, apparently, by those who disagree with him. He makes one think hard – very hard – about the nature and importance of religious belief, the possibilities for a transcendent or spiritual realm, and its possible nature.

 

Hick’s message is philosophically authoritative, politically savvy, and reveals a deep knowledge of science, human nature and the theologies at the heart of all the great religions. Yet it is practically oriented toward the possible establishment of a global society and a global ethic. His suggestions, if taken seriously, could be calming for the fearful world situation in which we find ourselves.