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end p.391
16 RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
Familiar Problems, Novel Opportunities
Philip L. Quinn
Religious diversity is, of course, nothing new. In the West, Greek observers long ago
commented on Egyptian religious beliefs and practices, and the Hebrew Bible records
information about the rival religions the Israelites encountered. Surely the early
Christians, who were persecuted for refusing to acknowledge the divinity of the Roman
emperors, were aware of religious diversity. It did not escape notice in medieval
Christendom; Aquinas, for example, cited Maimonides frequently and with great respect.
But when the Reformation shattered the unity of Christendom, religious diversity became
more salient for the culture of modernity because it had become a source of violent
conflict at the heart of Europe. And it appears to be a permanent feature of the pluralistic
liberal democracies that have come to be typical of Western Europe and North America.
At the beginning of the third millennium of the common era, religious diversity seems to
be increasing in importance to philosophical thought. Among the factors responsible for
this change is the fact that educated people have become better acquainted than ever
before with religions other than their own. Modern technologies of travel and
communication facilitate contacts between the adherents of different religions. Modern
scholarship has made texts from a variety of religious traditions available in many
languages. And cultural anthropologists have provided fascinating thick descriptions of
an enormous range of religious beliefs and practices. Moreover, those of us who live in
religiously pluralistic democracies
end p.392