Controversial Theorist Wins Award for Book : Christianity: John Hick won a prize funded in part by a Presbyterian seminary for ideas that prevented Presbyterian officials from accepting transfer of his credentials.

A Claremont religious philosopher has been given a $150,000 prize, awarded in part by a Presbyterian seminary, for a book that says Christianity is not the only true religion--a theory which was a central reason that Presbyterian officials rejected his credentials as a minister several years ago.

John H. Hick, 69, was announced this week as the 1991 winner of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, presented by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Hick was honored for a 1989 book that he said presents a theory “for understanding the relationship between the great religions as different human responses to the transcendent, divine reality.”

It was that idea, plus his call for rethinking some traditional doctrines about the nature of Christ, that prompted the Presbytery of San Gabriel in 1987 to reject Hick’s application to have his clergy credentials from England’s United Reformed Church transferred to Southern California.

The case had been a cause celebre with the Presbyterian Church in the mid-1980s because Hick was a well-regarded scholar in academic circles.

Some Presbyterian pastors who objected to Hick argued that his acceptance would have prompted a number of conservative congregations in the South to bolt the then-newly merged Southern and Northern branches of Presbyterianism.

Hick, who was chairing the religion department of Claremont Graduate School at the time, also had been criticized for such writings as the controversial 1977 book “The Myth of God Incarnate,” which challenged traditional tenets about God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ.

At a news conference Tuesday in Louisville, “the people from the Presbyterian Seminary were extremely friendly and hospitable,” Hick said.

The $150,000 prize will be paid in five yearly installments of $30,000.

The award-winning book is “An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent,” first published in 1989 by Yale University Press and recently issued in paperback.

“We think it is a profound book, but this award does not carry an endorsement that he is correct,” said Eugene March, a biblical scholar at the seminary who administers the selection process. “We feel it warrants attention because he wrestles with important questions. Hick doesn’t question the authenticity of Christianity, but he says the others have authenticity, too.”

The award announcement said Hick produced “a lucid and comprehensive interpretation of religions as diverse, culturally conditioned responses to . . . the same transcendent reality.” The book “provides a basis for increased cooperation and interfaith dialogue,” the announcement said.

Hick, who relinquished the religion department chair at Claremont last year, said he will retire from teaching in 1992.