The Mahatma and the Philosopher: Mohandas Gandhi and John Hick and Their Search for Truth

Abstract

In the present-day multicultural context, religious pluralism continues to be a contentious issue. This chapter focuses on two eminent thinkers whose perspectives on religious pluralism have attracted much attention: Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948), known to the world for his non-violent campaign against British rule, and John Hick (1922–),1 a renowned British theologian and philosopher of religion. These two important personalities have been studied apart but not, to my knowledge, together. No scholarly attention has been paid to the striking resonances in their approaches to religious pluralism. My primary aim is to identify and explore significant correspondences in their thinking on religious pluralism, rather than engaging with the contentious debate their positions on religious pluralism have ignited in Western Christian theological discourse.2 The debate has been well documented, and the intention is not to repeat it here. Situating them in their respective contexts, this chapter attempts to draw attention to concurrences in their notion of religion, concept of Truth/Real, and approach to conflicting truth claims.KeywordsReligious TraditionReligious ExperienceSelect WorkReligious PluralismCopernican RevolutionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.