%0 Journal Article %T John Hick and the Epistemological Validity of Religious Experience %J Philosophy of Religion %I University of Tehran %Z 2008-7063 %A Amoorezaei, Farhad %A Ghanbari, Hasan %D 2018 %\ 12/22/2018 %V 15 %N 4 %P 823-844 %! John Hick and the Epistemological Validity of Religious Experience %K Religious experience %K Epistemology %K Criticality of having belief in the existence of God %K Principle of critical trust %K Principle of testimony %K Principle of desirable spiritual and moral outcomes %R 10.22059/jpht.2018.225182.1005437 %X John Hick, the renowned contemporary philosopher, is known by his theory of religious pluralism. It should be noted, though, that one of the main principles of Hick’s pluralistic theory is the religious experience and the role such an experience has in the validation of the religious beliefs. In fact, he bridges the plurality of religious experiences to the plurality of religious beliefs. In order to show the epistemological validity of religious experience, Hick adopts some principles such as the criticality of having belief in the object associated with the religious experience, the principle of critical trust, the principle of testimony, and the principle of spiritual and moral outcomes. The article at hand analyzes and criticizes these principles. Moreover, the diversity and plurality of religious experiences are discussed and Hick’s view in this regard is investigated. In line with this investigation and criticism, we will extensively talk about Hick’s epistemological principles for pluralism. At the end, we conclude although paying attention to the consequences of religious experience can be promising, no rational, undisputable argument similar to the traditional arguments for the verification of the existence of God can be extracted from them. %U https://jpht.ut.ac.ir/article_69986_72c28feb432fcd79f50af5422bb7b261.pdf