Endnotes

¹For background on the parable of the ring, see Alan Mittleman, “Toleration, Liberty, and Truth: A Parable,” Harvard Theological Review 95:4 (2002): 353–72.

²Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise (trans. Patrick Maxwell; ed. George Alexander Kohut; New York: Bloch, 1939), 243.

³Ibid., 249.

⁴Ibid., 252–53.

⁵Joann O’Brien and Martin Palmer, The Atlas of Religion: Mapping Contemporary Challenges and Beliefs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 14.

⁶Ninian Smart and Frederick Denny, eds., Atlas of the World’s Religions (2d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 15.

⁷See Christopher Partridge, ed., New Religions: A Guide: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

⁸Robert Wilken, Remembering the Christian Past (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 27, 42.

⁹For a survey of different perspectives on other religions, see Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to the Theology of Religions: Biblical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003).

¹⁰Peter Berger, A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity (New York: Anchor, 1992), 67, 146–47 (emphasis in original).

¹¹Robert Wuthnow, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 191.

¹²Peter Byrne, “It Is Not Reasonable to Believe That Only One Religion Is True,” in Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion (ed. Michael L. Peterson and Raymond J. Vanarragon; Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 204.

¹³On Hick’s theological journey, see John Hick, John Hick: An Autobiography (Oxford: Oneworld, 2002), and Harold Netland, Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Christian Faith and Mission (Downers Grove: IVP, 2001), 158–77.

¹⁴John Hick, A Christian Theology of Religions: The Rainbow of Faiths (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 27.

¹⁵John Hick, The Fifth Dimension (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), 77.

¹⁶John Hick, An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent (2d ed.; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 8.

¹⁷Ibid., 350.

¹⁸John Hick, A Christian Theology of Religions, 69.

¹⁹John Hick, Problems of Religious Pluralism (New York: St. Martin’s, 1985), 86–87.

²⁰John Hick, “Jesus and the World Religions,” in The Myth of God Incarnate (ed. John Hick; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), 172 (emphasis in original).

²¹John Hick, God Has Many Names (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980), 74.

²²John Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 98.

²³Roger Schmidt, et al., Patterns of Religion (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1999), 10.

²⁴Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience (5th ed.; Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996), 1–8; idem, Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (2d ed.; New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1995).

²⁵Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind, 5.

²⁶The Four Noble Truths, which are said to have been expressed in the Buddha’s first sermon and comprise the heart of classical Buddhist teaching, are as follows:

1. All of existence is characterized by dukkha (usually translated as “suffering” or “dissatisfaction”).
2. There are discernible causes of suffering, and the root cause is tanha (desire, thirst, or craving).
3. The disease of suffering is curable, and when desire/craving cease, suffering ceases as well.
4. The cessation of desire/craving (and thus suffering) is achieved through following the Noble Eightfold Path, which is a series of highly disciplined steps that lead to enlightenment. They are clustered into three general categories: proper view (right understanding and right thought), proper conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), and proper practice (right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration).

See Donald W. Mitchell, Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience (2d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 49–61.

²⁷Keith Yandell, “How to Sink in Cognitive Quicksand: Nuancing Religious Pluralism,” in Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion, 191.

²⁸Although the meaning of “truth” in religion is the same as that of “truth” in other domains, the ways in which we determine whether a given religious belief is true will of course be somewhat different from ways in which we determine truth in, say, physics or history.

²⁹K. N. Jayatilleke, The Message of the Buddha (ed. Ninian Smart; New York: Free Press, 1974), 43–44.

³⁰Hajime Nakamura, “Unity and Diversity in Buddhism,” in The Path of the Buddha: Buddhism Interpreted by Buddhists (ed. Kenneth W. Morgan; New York: Ronald, 1956), 372. See also Paul Griffiths, “Philosophizing Across Cultures: or, How to Argue With a Buddhist,” Criterion 26 (Winter 1987), 10–14; idem, An Apology for Apologetics: A Study in the Logic of Interreligious Dialogue (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991); and Keith Yandell, “Religious Traditions and Rational Assessments,” in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (ed. Chad Meister and Paul Copan; London: Routledge, 2007), 204–15.

³¹See Harold Netland, Encountering Religious Pluralism, 293–97.

³²See Richard King, Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1999).

³³ The Vedanta Sutras of Badarayanna with the Commentary of Sankara (trans. George Thibaut; New York: Dover, 1962; originally published 1896), 2:399.

³⁴“Jaina Sutras” in Sacred Books of the East (trans. Hermann Jacobi; ed. F. Max Muller; Curzon: Richmond, Surrey, 2001), 45:418.

³⁵H. H. The XIVth Dalai Lama, “‘Religious Harmony’ and The Bodhgaya Interviews,” in Christianity Through Non-Christian Eyes (ed. Paul J. Griffiths; Maryknoll: Orbis, 1990), 169.

³⁶John Hick, A Christian Theology of Religions, 27.

³⁷See Keith Yandell, Philosophy of Religion (London: Routledge, 1999), 71–72.

³⁸See John Hick, A Christian Theology of Religions, 27, 60, 63, 67.

³⁹John Hick, “Ineffability,” Religious Studies 36 (March 2000), 44.

⁴⁰Keith Yandell, “How to Sink in Cognitive Quicksand,” 194, and “Revisiting Religious Pluralism,” Christian Scholar’s Review 31:3 (Spring 2002): 319.

⁴¹Peter Byrne, “It Is Not Reasonable to Believe that Only One Religion Is True,” 204.

⁴²For helpful discussions of arguments for God’s existence, see Richard Swinburne, The Existence of God (2d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); idem, Is There A God? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); Stephen T. Davis, God, Reason and Theistic Proofs (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997); Keith Yandell, Philosophy of Religion, 167–235; and Chad Meister and Paul Copan, eds., The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Religion (London: Routledge, 2007), 329–93.

⁴³John Hick, “A Pluralist View,” in Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World (ed. Dennis L. Okholm and Timothy R. Phillips; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 51–52.

⁴⁴For a helpful discussion of the biblical data on Jesus as these relate to issues of religious pluralism, see James R. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005).

⁴⁵See Robert W. Wood, ed., “Tillich Encounters Japan,” Japanese Religions (May 1961), 2:48–71.

⁴⁶See Craig L. Blomberg, “Who was Jesus of Nazareth.” For helpful introductions to the issues of history, the New Testament, and Christian faith, see Colin Brown, “Historical Jesus, Quest of,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (ed. Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall; Downers Grove: IVP, 1992), 326–41; Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (2d ed.; Downers Grove: IVP, 2007); Paul Barnett, Is the New Testament Reliable? (2d ed.; Downers Grove: IVP, 2003); and Craig A. Evans, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006).

⁴⁷Craig Blomberg, “The Historical Reliability of the New Testament,” in William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Faith and Apologetics (2d ed.; Wheaton: Crossway, 1994), 194–95.

⁴⁸On historical issues concerning Gautama the Buddha, see Donald W. Mitchell, Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience (2d ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 9–32; Hajime Nakamura, Gotama Buddha: A Biography Based on the Most Reliable Texts, vol. 1 (trans. Gaynor Sekimori; Tokyo: Kosei, 2000); and David Edward Shaner, “Biographies of the Buddha,” Philosophy East and West 37 (July 1987): 306–22.

⁴⁹See Donald W. Mitchell, Buddhism, 66.

⁵⁰On issues relating to the year of Jesus’ death, see Joel B. Green, “Death of Jesus,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 148–49.

⁵¹ For further discussion on dates and related issues for each New Testament book, see D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005).

⁵²See, for example, Julia Ching, Confucianism and Christianity: A Comparative Study (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1977).

⁵³K. N. Jayatilleke, The Message of the Buddha (ed. Ninian Smart; New York: Free Press, 1974), 105.

⁵⁴Paul Williams, The Unexpected Way: On Converting From Buddhism to Catholicism (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2002), 25. For more on Buddhist critiques of theism, see Gunapala Dharmasiri, A Buddhist Critique of the Christian Concept of God (Antioch, CA: Golden Leaves, 1988); and Paul Williams, “Aquinas Meets the Buddhists: Prolegomenon to an Authentically Thomas-ist Basis for Dialogue,” in Aquinas in Dialogue: Thomas for the Twenty-First Century (ed. James Fodor and Christian Bauerschmidt; Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 87–117.

⁵⁵Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, 3.

⁵⁶C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 2–4 (emphasis in the original).

⁵⁷Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003); and idem, How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005).

⁵⁸Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ, 2. As indicators of such worship, he points to the practices of calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when believers gathered together (1 Corinthians 1:2); the use of hymns about or to Jesus as regular parts of Christian worship (Philippians 2:5–11); prayer to God “through” Jesus (Romans 1:8), and direct prayer to Jesus himself (Acts 7:59–60; 2 Cor 12:8–9; 1 Thessalonians 3:11–13; 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17); use of the formula “Marana tha!” (“O Lord, Come!”) as a prayer in worship (1 Corinthians 16:22); invoking Jesus’ name in healing and exorcism (Acts 3:16; 16:18) as well as in baptism (Acts 2:38); and the celebration of the “Lord’s Supper” (1 Corinthians 11:17–34).

⁵⁹Larry Hurtado, How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?, 25.

⁶⁰Ibid., 3. See also Richard Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998).

⁶¹There are some striking exceptions to this pattern in Mahayana Buddhism, in which various bodhisattvas and buddhas are said to assist human beings in the pursuit of enlightenment and liberation. The Pure Land tradition, in particular, teaches that we cannot attain enlightenment and rebirth in the Pure Land through our own efforts and that we must rely solely upon the merit and “grace” of the Amida Buddha for such liberation.

⁶²Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, 1–2.

⁶³Veli-Matti Karkkainen, An Introduction to the Theology of Religions: Biblical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003), 20.

⁶⁴For further discussion of these points, see Harold Netland, Encountering Religious Pluralism, 308–48. See also Winfried Corduan, A Tapestry of Faiths: The Common Threads Between Christianity and World Religions (Downers Grove: IVP, 2002) and Ida Glaser, The Bible and Other Faiths: Christian Responsibility in a World of Religions (Downers Grove: IVP, 2005).

⁶⁵Confucius: The Analects, 12:2 and 15:24 (trans. D.C. Lau; London: Penguin, 1979), 112, 135.

⁶⁶Christopher J. H. Wright, “The Christian and Other Religions: The Biblical Evidence,” Themelios 9:2 (1984): 5.

⁶⁷For helpful discussions of the relevant biblical and theological issues in the debate, see D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) and Millard J. Erickson, How Shall They Be Saved? The Destiny of Those Who Do Not Hear of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996).

⁶⁸See John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003); Ronald Nash, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994); and Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds., Faith Comes By Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008).

⁶⁹See John Sanders, No Other Name: An Investigation into the Destiny of the Unevangelized (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992); Clark Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy: The Finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992); Terrance L. Tiessen, Who Can Be Saved? Reassessing Salvation in Christ and World Religions (Downers Grove: IVP, 2004).

⁷⁰John Stott, The Authentic Jesus (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1985), 83. See also J. I. Packer, “Evangelicals and the Way of Salvation,” in Evangelical Affirmations (ed. Kenneth S. Kantzer and Carl F. H. Henry; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 121–23; Millard Erickson, How Shall They Be Saved?; and David Clark, “Is Special Revelation Necessary for Salvation?” in Through No Fault of Their Own? (ed. William V. Crockett and James Sigountos; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 40–41.

⁷¹Millard Erickson, How Shall They Be Saved?, 158.

⁷²Lesslie Newbigin, A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 122, 115.

⁷³Johannes Verkuyl, “The Biblical Notion of Kingdom: Test of Validity for Theology of Religion,” in Good News of the Kingdom (ed. Charles Van Engen, Dean S. Gillialand, and Paul Pierson; Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993), 77.