A Comparative Study of John Hick and Raimon Panikkar, addressing paradigms of Pluralism to the context of Intercultural Education

Abstract

The context of Intercultural Education for Peace is one of urgent and growing relevance yet one in which questions surrounding the relationship between religions and the academics, wellbeing, and mission are difficult to articulate with coherence, and therefore often avoided. This study addresses diversity and inclusion, spiritual wellbeing, global citizenship education and the institutional ethos of international education via a comparative analysis of metaphysics in two Pluralist Theologies of Religions. It asks if the paradigms of Critical Realism exemplified by John Hick, and Non-dual Cosmovision, in the message of Raimon Panikkar, frame metaphysics in a way that provides trans-religious coherence to the priorities of intercultural education. Through searching comparison on both secular and theological vectors, we gravitate towards a collaborative theological assessment of their ideas in practice. Theologies represent a necessary interdependence of Epistemology, Ontology, and Ethics and reflect how this relationship constructs the propositional and dispositional aspects of faith as a constitutive dimension of the human person. We explore the implications of this, observing that the idea of salvation aligns as never before with that of experiencing and, in the intercultural learning community, bearing witness to, Peace. Thus, it finds room for the language of spirit as cohering authentic identity and for theological reflection in curricular, pastoral and institutional spheres.