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Christians and the uniqueness of christ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

J. Lipner
Affiliation:
The Divinity School, St. John's Street, Cambridge

Extract

In a short but pithy article entitled ‘Christ's uniqueness’, which appeared recently in an issue of the publication ‘Reform’, Professor John Hick outlines very compactly one of his latest presentations against the traditional Christian acceptance of Jesus' theological pre-eminence. My paper is not intended to present a full-blown argument either in defence or criticism of ‘the uniqueness of Christ’ (Except where another sense is clear, I use ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’ throughout as they are commonly used, viz. as proper names referring to one and the same person). More directly, its aim is to point out what appear to be serious objections to a view that is gaining increasing support from thinkers who study the inter-relations between the world religions at various levels; and which for the committed Christian raises fundamental issues any seraiousminded believer, scholar or layman, must eventually face. Professor Hick repeats and summarises here a position he discusses at length elsewhere, and perhaps it is fitting that the stance we shall now examine will be made in the context of a presentation of one of its leading exponents.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1975

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References

page 359 note 1 Oct. 1974, pp. 18–19.

page 359 note 2 See, e.g., the latter half of his book God and the Universe of Faiths (Macmillan, 1973)Google Scholar

page 359 note 3 Reform, p. 18.

page 359 note 4 ibid.

page 359 note 5 ibid.

page 360 note 1 Reform p. 18.

page 360 note 2 ibid.

page 360 note 3 ibid.

360 4 ibid.

page 360 note 5 This point is treated at greater length in e.g. God and the Universe of Faiths, p. 117.

page 360 note 6 Reform, p. 19.

page 360 note 7 ibid.

page 360 note 8 Hick concedes something very much along these lines when he says in another place: ‘Indeed so central is the belief in the deity of Christ to the established system of Christian theology that many people would today identify it as the essential Christian belief’, op. cit., p. 114.

page 360 note 9 Reform, p. 19.

page 361 note 1 In the ensuing discussion ‘Church’ is used as a convenient abbreviation for some such phrase as ‘those persons who would call themselves believing and committed Chraistians’.

page 361 note 2 Reform, p. 19.

page 361 note 3 ibid.

page 362 note 1 Reform p. 19.

page 362 note 2 ibid.

page 362 note 3 ibid.

page 365 note 1 Reform, p. 19.

page 367 note 1 God and the Universe of Faiths, ch. 3.