Abstract

Exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism have become common terms for sorting out different responses to religious diversity that have appeared within the Christian tradition. In this study, I argue that each of these responses is a different form of what could be called "unity in diversity." Religious unity in diversity understands every different religious form as a variant of one religious form. The different responses to religious diversity make sense when it is understood that they derive from different ideas about what the unifying religious form is. The connection between the conception of unity and the resultant perception of diversity is so strong that we can go so far as to say that exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism are all rooted in a particular conception of what religion is. And to repeat, it is these ideas about what religion is that precipitate different ideas about what all religions are. At the heart of this study are five case studies of different attempts, within the Christian tradition, to make sense of religious diversity; the conclusions above are derived from these case studies. Although every form of unity in diversity reduces all forms to one, no form of unity in diversity should be rejected if it works, and this can be determined by applying it. The only situation that no form of religious unity in diversity can handle is one in which there truly are different forms of religion. This situation, if it exists, shows the limitation of every possible form of religious unity in diversity.