PLURALISM AND FAITHpluralism itself is threatened by nationalist forces in the name of defeating ‘‘relativism,’’
‘‘nihilism,’’ or ‘‘rootlessness.’’ At a certain point of danger, a militant assemblage of plu-
ralists, with each constituency drawing upon its own sources of sustenance, must coalesce
to resist such an onslaught. Before that point is reached, it is important to point out
muted ways by which the politics of anathematization proceeds, for when intercultural
connections are intensive and extensive, the anathematizations of one day readily degen-
erate into policies of repression, cleansing, invasion, torture, or liquidation on the next.
Deep, multidimensional pluralism provides a viable corrective to cultural relativism,
shallow secular diversity, and national models of exclusionary politics. To the extent that
it responds to the contemporary acceleration of pace and diversification marking the
contemporary age, the new pluralism carries forward through alteration noble elements
in the Enlightenment, democracy, and the religions of the Book.
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