Our “new-found” awareness of multiple religions has led some scholars to reckon with the truth of religious claims. In various ways, many are discerning what it means for these forces to coexist. For example, in Problems of Religious Diversity, Paul Griffiths raises the question: If all religions are on a par with respect to truth, what becomes of people’s religious identities? Griffiths reminds the reader of the caution with which one must approach such an inquiry. From his point of view, arguments for pluralism pose challenges, and although meaningful connections between religions do exist, assuming that selecting a religion is like visiting the buffet can be troublesome.

Particularly helpful from Griffiths is his definition of religion. He notes: “A religion is a form of life that seems to those who belong to it to be comprehensive, incapable of abandonment, and of central importance.”¹ The fact of religious diversity and arguments for pluralism put strain on the second element of his definition: incapable of abandonment. Do one’s religious convictions remain unsurpassable if one asserts that all religions are on a par with respect to truth? Furthermore, have recent pluralism efforts impacted people’s religiosity? Griffiths seems to answer by stating that awareness of religious diversity does have an impact on epistemic confidence and one’s commitment and orientation to the home religion. But whether these reasonable doubts are helpful or harmful to the religious believer is hard to say.

For those who are unaware of the latest discussions in academic philosophy and theology, there might be a few conversations worth turning to. One conversation revolves around notions of the “post-secular,” a term with a variety of meanings and unknowns that has prompted scholars of religion to engage secularism, liberalism, and religious diversity and pluralism.  The term is considered to be birthed by Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher and sociologist, whose research, especially in his later years, focused on the public role of religion. At the core, Habermas is concerned about the coexistence of secular and religious identities, what kind of values these worldviews engender, and how a political discourse or discourse in the public square might honor this reality. While there seems to be a general consensus on the realities of the United States’ transition toward becoming a post-Christian, religiously diverse (and perhaps plural) nation, there is less consensus on whether the term “post-secular” properly captures the essence of this transition.

Looking back, the Age of Enlightenment had a profound effect on the way religion is perceived in Western society. As seen with the creation of the social sciences as distinct from theology and religion, over the years a fine distinction between faith and reason, religion and rationality, and church and state has crystallized. Some argue that this contributed to the privatization of religious faith in Western nations, especially the United States, over the years.² It also seemed to decrease the perceived value of religious faith, almost making it dispensable. In the past fifty years especially, this can be evidenced in lower attendance at worship services, less appeals to religious practice and doctrine in decision making processes, and the downsizing and closing of departments of religion at universities and of seminaries, divinity, and theology schools.

While some argue that secularism contributed to scientific progress and technological achievement, others hold that over the centuries it did violence to religious belief. Secularism turned many people’s attention away from the sacred; transcendent worldviews and their moral and ethical derivatives no longer possessed authority or sway in economic and political deliberations. In this sense, some argue that it has been destructive to religious belief, especially when a religion’s cosmological theory makes no distinction between this world and that world, the secular and the religious.

The merits and demerits of secularism can be discussed and debated for pages on end, but what is of ultimate importance is breaking down the present moment. It is empirically true that the U.S. was founded on Judeo-Christian precepts, but the present population has indeed emerged from these origins. The U.S. is now a post-Christian nation. Not only is the spectrum of diversity within the Judeo-Christian heritage currently exceedingly vast, a host of other traditional/organized religions now have large populations in the United States. To be precise, I am referring to the varieties of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Additionally, there are other, lesser known communities that ascribe to transcendent worldviews that come with spiritual, moral, and ethical directives. There are also those who are non-religious that might espouse a kind of atheism or humanism; as Charles Taylor describes, those operating within an immanent framework.³

The range of diversity in connection to religious belief in the U.S. has reached new heights. And it seems that we, those of Western nations, especially the U.S., are riding the crest of a wave and have not yet fully considered exactly how to land ashore.

(To be continued… )

Image by Markus Grossalber.

1. Paul Griffiths, Problems of Religious Diversity (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001), xiv.
2. This point is illuminated by recent Supreme Court cases: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) and Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
3. Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 15.