“Enfermería en Cardiología”
QUÉ DICE SOBRE LA CARDIOLOGÍA EN EL SNS?
Chinese Folk Religion is clearly not the only religious phenomenon that Hick’s
(1989a) criteriology grades as unauthentic and less valuable, for he has explicitly
presented a long list of religious phenomena, concepts and practices that fail to meet
his criterion (pp.326-327). That being said, as mentioned previously, what he
originally wishes to reject are merely the ‘misapplications’ of the truthful teachings of
the world religions. In other words, his assumption still implies that all contemporary,
active religions, if practiced rightly, are equally authentic, preferable and effective in
leading their followers to a salvific-end. This thesis, however, is to argue that his
theory would actually put not only its manifestations, but an entire religion into the
‘evil’, unauthentic category, because the concepts and practices that fail to meet
Hick’s criterion are so central and foundational to such a religion that they cannot be
seen as a mere manifestation of that religion. Therefore, in order to demonstrate the
graded as authentic explicitly (e.g., Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism), even though
the critics from such a tradition may still find certain incompatibilities between Hick’s
theory and what their tradition believes.
As a meta-theory of religion, Hick has in fact surveyed a large number of
religious traditions, all of which are categorised by him as authentic and
soteriologically effective (if practiced rightly). Nonetheless, since his approach to
understand what these traditions believe is heavily based on the interpretations of their
authoritative scriptures and the sayings of their spiritual leaders, he has inevitably left
out the religious traditions that do not involve any authoritative doctrine, scripture or
spiritual leader. However, it does not mean that he intends to think any less of these
traditions. Apart from not having been approved by Hick explicitly, the religion we
choose must also have failed to meet his criterion and contain elements alien to what
he sees as the commonalities of all religions. Preferably, the bigger and more
significant are these conflicts, the stronger would be our arguments.
After surveying a number of religious traditions that he did not approve explicitly,
this study learned that Chinese Folk Religion would work as a more appropriate and
effective counterexample to Hick’s theory, for the tension between the two appeared
Table 1
Conflicts between Hick’s theory and Chinese Folk Religion
Hick’s theory Chinese Folk Religion
1. The central moral ideal
of all religions is
selflessness and
universal compassion.
The most important virtue
of all is filial piety, which
is a concept of conditional love. 2. To achieve salvation is to transform oneself from self-centredness to Reality-centredness
(that is, according to
Hick’s theory,
selflessness).
To achieve salvation is to
cultivate this-worldly
self-interest.
3. All religions treat
salvation/liberation as
the ultimate goal.
If the cultivation of
this-worldly self-interest
is not to be seen a kind of
salvation, then Chinese
concern salvation. 4. Salvation is the limitlessly better religious-end that happens in another realm of reality afterlife.
Salvation happens at the
present in this world. It is
neither eternal nor
limitlessly better.
5. All religions involve a
dualistic concept of
‘Real an sich’ and
‘Real as experienced’,
both of which are
equally transcendent.
The opposite aspect of the
most transcendent Tien is
the lowest-ranked Earth.
6. Authoritative
scriptures, doctrines
and the sayings of
spiritual leaders represent what a religion believes. There is no authoritative scripture, doctrine or spiritual leader.
7. All religions expect
total commitment and
exclusivist
membership from their
followers.
Followers are allowed or
even encouraged to
embrace foreign beliefs
and practices. It is equally
acceptable to be
non-religious.
8. All religions expect
their followers to have
total faith in their
teachings.
Followers are allowed to
be agnostic.
This thesis would demonstrate the above conflicts and, based on the argument
that Chinese Folk Religion is not a tradition that Hick intends to degrade, reduce these
conflicts by reconstructing some of his assumptions.
One may suggest that Shintoism from Japan, for instance, also contains similar
elements that are incompatible with Hick’s explanatory theory. These elements
include the emphasis of family bonds, ancestor worship, and the lack of authoritative
doctrine or scripture, etc. It does not require a strict membership or total commitment
Therefore, this thesis did not claim that studying Chinese Folk Religion is the only
way to demonstrate the problems of Hick’s theory. In fact, since there are other
religious traditions that are degraded by Hick’s criteriology for similar reasons, the
reconstructed model this thesis developed should also be able to be applied to truly
understand and establish a genuine dialogue with these traditions. What this thesis
maintains, however, is that Chinese Folk Religion would prove to be most preferable
for this study.
Taking Shintoism as an example, although it seems to share certain elements –
including the Chinese traditional religious beliefs it adopted – with Chinese Folk
Religion, its deep connection with Buddhism makes it more difficult to challenge
Hick’s assumptions from its perspective, mainly because, as explained earlier,
Buddhism is one of the institutional religions that Hick’s theory strongly promotes.
Buddhism did not only shape the belief system of contemporary, popular Shintoism, it
is also part of the latter especially when it comes to the concepts and practices
concerning afterlife and ultimate liberation, and the core idea of Shintoism – kami
(god) – is often considered equivalent to Buddha (Scheid, 2008; Ono, 1962, pp.6-7).
As this thesis would suggest, however, Chinese Folk Religion should be treated as an
independent religion on the same level as Buddhism or had even shaped the Chinese
non-transcendent deities by its practitioners.
In addition, although popular Shintoism also seems to involve no authoritative
doctrine or scripture, its organisations, shrines and priesthood are more
institutionalised and are recognised by the government officially, and there are some
formalised prayers and rituals that are widely practiced (Evans, 2001, pp.7-29). These
are, on the other hand, not witnessed in Chinese Folk Religion.
Apart from the fact that its root is deeply related to a religion Hick clearly
approves, Shintoism also concerns afterlife and religious salvation more than Chinese
Folk Religion, and meditation is commonly recognised as a way to reach a
salvific-end (ibid, pp.31-52).
Lastly, the self-centredness that Chinese Folk Religion encourages is responsible
for the religion to fail to meet Hick’s criterion, but what Shintoism promotes is in fact
quite consistent with the ‘Golden Rule’ Hick describes. According to a Shinto
highpriest:
In Shinto, all human beings are regarded as children or descendants of the
kami. Therefore, we have kami nature within ourselves and are born with
the capability of solving problems and of creating a life with happiness and
spirituality, can be shared and understood by people other than Japanese and
that Shinto can contribute toward peace in the world (ibid, pp.ix; xi).
It is not to say that Shintoism can definitely meet Hick’s criterion of truthful
religion, but that, for the above reasons, Chinese Folk Religion should work as a
better counterexample to the key assumptions Hick proposes.