John Harwood Hick (1922–2012)

Born in Scarborough, England, Hick received his D. Phil. from Oxford University. For several years he served as a Presbyterian minister in Northumberland, England, but soon moved to the United States, where he took a position teaching philosophy at Cornell University. He served as Stuart Professor of Christian Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1959 to 1964. Since then he has held a variety of teaching positions in the United States and England. Throughout Hick's career, his main focus has remained on problems in the philosophy of religion. His numerous books, particularly those concerned with the epistemology of religious belief, are marked with a consistently clear and easily accessible style. For this reason, his writings have always been popular among professional philosophers and theologians, as well as among those who are more casually interested in the nature of religious belief or the place of religion in contemporary culture. In more recent years, Hick became more single-minded in his concern with the problem of religious pluralism. Convinced that Western philosophical and religious thought have been too narrowly shaped by preoccupation with the Judeo-Christian tradition, he argues for a broader, more ecumenical spirit. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Philosophy of Religion… (more)