ABSTRACT
John Hick's well-known doctrine of the Real and its phenomenal manifestations invites us to consider differing ways of conceiving the distinction. In invoking the categorical structure of the human mind as having input into knowledge as the mind filters the phenomena, he is, in the case of religions, postulating something much weaker than the a priori. After all, it is the traditions which mould the minds which experience the Absolute. Complementarity is probably a better model than that of unity. In the long run, perhaps, not too much difference is generated by the alternative models. Complementary religions can instruct one another and render critiques in a positive and caring manner. Complementarity suggests the possibility, but by no means the certainty, of convergence. Since nothing about world-views and value systems can ever be sure, there can be no way of answering the question as to whether there will be a single world religion or ideology.
