Religious pluralism is the greatest challenge facing Christianity in Western culture today. The belief that Christ is the only way to God is being challenged, and increasingly, Christianity is seen as just one among many valid paths to God.
In Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World, four perspectives are presented by a major advocate of each:
- Normative Pluralism: all ethical religions lead to God (John Hick)
- Inclusivism: salvation is universally available, but is established by and leads to Christ (Clark Pinnock)
- Salvation in Christ: agnosticism regarding those who haven’t heard the gospel (Alister McGrath)
- Salvation in Christ alone: (R. Douglas Geivett and W. Gary Phillips)
This book allows each contributor to not only present the case for his view, but also to respond to the critiques of the other contributors and to critique their views in turn.
Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World
by John Hick, Clark H. Pinnock, Alister E. McGrath, R. Douglas Geivett, W. Gary Phillips, Dennis L. Okholm, Timothy R. Phillips, Stanley N. Gundry
Increasingly, Christianity is seen as just one among many valid paths to God. Four views – from salvation in Christ alone to the belief that all ethical religions lead to God – presented by advocates of each, help Christians understand and meet the challenges of our pluralistic culture.
John Hick is a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He has taught philosophy of religion at Cornell University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Claremont Graduate University in California, as well as Cambridge and Birmingham Universities in the United Kingdom. He is the author of sixteen and editor of nine books, and his writings have been translated into sixteen languages. He gave the Gifford Lectures in 1986-87 and received the Grawemeyer Award for significant new thinking in religion in 1991.
Clark H. Pinnockwas professor of theology at McMaster Divinity College.
Alister E. McGrath is a historian, biochemist, and Christian theologian born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. McGrath, a longtime professor at Oxford University, now holds the Chair in theology, ministry, and education at the University of London. He is the author of several books on theology and history, including Christianity’s Dangerous Idea; In the Beginning, and The Twilight of Atheism. He lives in Oxford, England and lectures regularly in the United States. SPANISH BIO: Alister McGrath es profesor de teologia historica en la Universidad de Oxford y director del Oxford Centre for Evangelism and Apologetics. Es autor de muchos libros altamente aclamados, incluyendo In The Beginning: The Story of the Kings James Bible.
Doug Geivett is a professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. Dr. Geivett served as the college pastor of a church in Washington and the Church of the Open Door in Southern California.
Until his death in 2000, Phillips (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) was associate professor of historical and systematic theology at Wheaton College.