Realism, Pluralism, and Salvation: Reading Mordecai Kaplan through John Hick

Abstract

The article surveys Kaplan’s ideas about God and salvation in the light of current debates on religious realism and pluralism. Using definitions formulated by John Hick, one of the prominent voices of religious realism and pluralism, the article’s central argument is that Kaplan was a religious realist who affirmed the ontological existence of God, even though his epistemology dictated the use of a nonrealistic and functionalistic religious language.