Copernican Upheaval in Philosophy of Religion or Updating of the Old Heritage? John Hick and Classical Deism

Abstract

It is a common view that theology of pluralism emerged as Athena from Zeus’ head in the last third of the twentieth century to have created a genuine revolution in philosophy of religion which opened a new era in the field after centuries of the outdated confessional approach to religious diversity. The author of the article undertakes, in opposition, its reconstruction in the context of history of thought. It turns out that similar “pluralistic revolutions” aiming at supplanting the traditional religion of the West took place in the epoch of Enlightenment the main common feature being erection of “rationalistic Revelation” as a gauge for the “instituted revelations.” The article is concluded by identification of the contemporary pluralistic ideology as a modern shape of Deism and estimation of compatibility of the authentic Christianity with these “pluralistic revolutions” then and now.