Religious Pluralism and Pluralistic Religion: John Hick's Epistemological Foundation of Religious Pluralism and an Explanation of Islamic Epistemology toward Diversity of Unique Religion

Abstract

the path of religious pluralism starts with the fact that our world contains a number of religious faiths having different ideas of the nature of divinity as the main and fundamental principle of religions and therefore, different and various dogmas, rites, and rituals. Despite the claim that the idea of religious pluralism is a product of modern philosophical schools, specifically new epistemological principles, I have attempted to demonstrate that what I have called “pluralistic religion,” as a part of a necessary and substantial distinction that has to be drawn between this hypothesis and John Hick’s classic theory of “religious pluralism,” is strongly rooted in the principle of “ultimate truth and uniqueness of religion,” which has one of its valid interpretations in Islamic epistemology.1 It is perhaps worth noting that this view not only does not deny the strong and unavoidable exclusivist tendency of all religions, but also tries to justify and clarify the necessity of such a tendency. Obviously, in this epistemological structure, the term exclusivism has an implication, completely distinct from the common meaning of the term, which stands contrary to the term pluralism. I also believe that this hypothesis would provide the fundamental bases for “pluralism in truthfulness” as the essential outcome of the ultimate uniqueness of religion which manifests and reveals itself in various and diverse forms. Thus, based on such an interpretation, the true claim of exclusivism in religions is considered as a complementary element for religious puralism, which refers to the various manifestations and crystallizations of ultimate truth of religion. In this paper, I begin with John Hick’s classic version of religious pluralism. According to Hick, one of the most prominent developers and defenders