There are key writers in all areas of expertise. Much of their best work is either incomprehensible to or extremely hard going for the non-expert. Sometimes though some of them distil the essence of their learning into a simple readable form accessible to all of us. John Hick is just such a writer and The Fifth Dimension is just such a book.
He addresses many of the perplexities that face those of us who have a faith in the transcendent, with the calm lucidity that even such a subtle and penetrating mind can only achieve after years of painfully honest reflection: one illustration (page 38 ) captures the spirit that pervades his book. Speaking of why free will entails a hidden God but a vividly present physical reality, he writes:
Our physical environment must force itself upon our attention if we are to survive within it. But our supra-natural environment, the fifth dimension of the universe, must not be forced upon our attention if we are to exist within it as free spiritual beings.
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