RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN EUROPE
RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN EUROPE

Summary/Abstract: Religious pluralism is the greatest challenge for contemporary Catholic theology. Today, pluralism permeates all levels and areas of life. This pluralism is, therefore, an empirical fact. However, this pluralism is also an ontological and religious fact. What I mean by this is that pluralism has philosophical and theological foundations and justifications. There are two main reactions in the world today, and in our country, to pluralism; one is negative, the other positive. Fear of pluralism leads to fundamentalism. This fundamentalism arises out of fear for one’s identity and the desire to preserve it. We cannot, of course, advocate a form of pluralism that would endanger anyone’s identity. The positive reaction to today’s pluralism is reflected in the legitimate and authentic expression and nurturing of one’s own religious identity and every other identity and in practicing one’s right to diversity in the plurality of human existence. Propagating authentic pluralism means contesting anyone’s demand to be in a privileged centre. It is the privileged centre with its exclusiveness, inclusiveness, and uniformity that negates the plurality of life and, thus, life itself. The task of contemporary Catholic theology is to affirm the universality of the Gospel and salvation through Jesus Christ in this contemporary plural world, without at the same time diminishing the proclamation, salvation, and universal values of other religions; to defy the colonisation and reduction of other religions; and to oppose any form of supremacy and violence. In this plural paradigm, there can be no centre that rules over and perpetrates violence against others.[...]

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