Miroslav Volf Tries to Reconcile Religious Exclusivism with Political Pluralism

Prominent theologian Miroslav Volf, controversial for organizing the “Loving God and Neighbor Together” overture to Muslims in 2007, shared his interfaith views at evangelical Gordon College in early June. His 2007 manifesto, endorsed by over 100 prominent U.S. evangelicals and Mainline Protestants, responded to an initiative by Muslims leaders. But it sparked some criticism for apologizing for the Crusades and the U.S. War on Terror while minimizing differences between Christianity and Islam.

“We increasingly live very much in an intermingled world…in which faiths are numerically growing and are politically assertive,” Volf said more recently at the “Christians in Political Science Conference” at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts on June 2nd 2012. Volf is a professor of theology at Yale Divinity School who recently authored a book called Allah: A Christian Response. In his book, Volf controversially argues that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and that one can maintain Muslim practices and still be a Christian.
In his talk, “A Public Faith: A Christian Alternative to Secular and Religious Political Exclusivism,” Volf identified himself as a religious exclusivist, which he defined simply as “[those] who believe that their faith is the true faith.” He defined his terms, explaining religious pluralists believe all religions are equally true. Further, political pluralism exists where “the state is neutral with respect to the overarching interpretations of life, and each citizen, no matter what overarching perspective of life he or she espouses, has equal voice in the affairs of the state.” This situation contrasts with political exclusivism, whose adherents “think that a particular group ought to be privileged within society,” Volf said.
Volf argued that although many people assume only religious pluralists can authentically embrace political pluralism, “Religious exclusivists indeed can embrace pluralism as a political project … and not just out of pragmatic reasons because they need to achieve certain goals … but they can embrace pluralism as a political project from the deep resources of their faith itself.” According to Volf, it is essential that religious exclusivists pursue political pluralism, because “the majority of religious folks [in the world] are religious exclusivists,” and “religion is becoming public.”
Volf explained: “It used to be that we could sequester people into groupings … [but] all these walls, as a result of globalization, have fallen down.” Further, “the popularity of the democratic ideal throughout the world” has spread, and “the democratic ideal is a significant value to most religious people.” Consequently, religious exclusivists “try to bring their own convictions into that public realm, hence part of the reason for assertiveness of religions in the world today.”
By some estimates, there are about two billion religious exclusivists in the world today, Volf said. He shared the statistics, which show that “in nominally Christian West countries … something like 55% of Christians are exclusivists,” whereas “in highly vibrant communities in the third world, 87% of Christians are religious exclusivists.” Volf described how “in moderate Muslim countries like Turkey and Indonesia, 60% of Muslims are [religious exclusivists]. In more strict Islamic countries or majority Muslim countries, the percentage is much higher.” He added: “Even Hindus who sometimes are said to be very tolerant and non-exclusivistic and pluralistic, a majority of them are religious exclusivists.” Considering these numbers, Volf warned if religious exclusivists cannot also be political pluralists, we will see major clashes in the near future.
Volf cited the 17^th century New England Puritan minister Roger Williams as “the original political pluralist.” Volf described how Williams was an “intransigent defender of religious truth,” and was staunchly “a religious exclusivist.” After being banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony, in part for his controversial belief in the separation of church and state, Williams settled Providence (Rhode Island) as a haven of religious freedom. Volf described Williams as a man unwaveringly devoted to God and truth, who at the same time allowed “radical freedom of tolerance” in an age when religious tolerance was virtually nonexistent.
“Is [political pluralism] simply a Christian phenomenon, or can it be transferred to other faiths and religions?” Volf asked rhetorically. He admitted it is “an argument that we will have to further make.” Volf emphasized that “at least in the case of Christian religious exclusivism … which again, for centuries has been connected with political totalitarianism, it was possible for explicitly religious reasons, to embrace pluralism as a political project.”
“I think religious exclusivists are good for the common good, especially the common good in the globalized world in which … you have to have sturdy convictions if you’re going to move and make change,” Volf said. Religious exclusivists “bring to fore some of the fundamental issues, which I would describe as account of self, social relations, and the Good.” Through discussing these issues, he said, “resistances are being placed against … mindless seeking for consumerist defined pleasures that do not end up to life well lived.” Volf concluded: “Against these forces, I think religious exclusivists, even those with whom I radically disagree, can be a help.