Svijet je oduvijek bio vrlo religiozno mjesto i po svim izgledima nastavit će to biti u bližoj budućnosti. Ipak, to nije ono što su očekivale neke istaknute osobe europskoga moderniteta. U cijelome svijetu, pogled na život koji je sve prisutniji nije sekularni humanizam. Ako se prije pola stoljeća činilo da će sekularni humanizam biti val budućnosti, to je zato što su ga na mnogim mjestima nametnule autoritarne i totalitarne vlade — u Sovjetskome savezu, u istočnoeuropskim zemljama, u Kini i u nekim jugoistočnim azijskim zemljama. Kao što spomen kršćanstva i islama pokazuje, svijet nije samo jedno religiozno mjesto, nego religijski raznoliko mjesto. U zapadnim društvima u tijeku je važan pomak s obzirom na vjeru. Tijekom stoljeća, zapadno je kršćanstvo bilo u sebi podijeljeno ili, sociološki govoreći, unutarnje diferencirano. Kršćanstvo je na tim područjima još uvijek bitno nadmoćnija religija, ali i prisutnost drugih također je znatna. Religiozna raznolikost u zapadnim zemljama sve više odražava religijske raznolikosti u svijetu. Liberalna demokracija pojavila se na Zapadu kao pokušaj prihvaćanja različitih religijskih pogleda na život unutar jednoga poretka. Ali, kada religija napusti javnu scenu — ili kad je se iz nje otjera — javna scena ne ostaje prazna. Umjesto toga, postaje ispunjena proširenim fenomenom zvanim sekularizam. Pluralistički prikaz odnosa među religijama dobro pristaje ulozi koju je religiji pripisala liberalna demokracija. Glavni problem pluralističkog prikaza odnosa medu religijama jest taj da pokušava smanjiti njihovu raznolikost. Dinamički karakter svake religije i preklapanja među njima daju određene razloge za nadu da se perspektive pripadnika različitih vjeroispovjesti ne moraju uvijek sukobljavati. Govoriti kao kršćanin znači govoriti iz ovih dvaju temeljnih uvjerenja: da Bog voli sve ljude, posebno prijestupnike, i da je vjerski identitet okružen propusnim granicama.The world has always been a very religious place, and, by all appearances it will continue to be in the foreseeable future. That is not what some of the great figures of European modernity expected, though. World-wide, the fastest-growing overarching perspective of life is not secular humanism. If half a century ago secular humanism seemed to be the wave of the future, it is because in many places it was imposed from above by authoritarian and totalitarian governments - in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, in China and some Southeast Asian countries. As the mention of Christianity and Islam signals, the world is not just a religious place. It is a religiously diverse place. And for centuries, Western Christianity itself was divided, or, in sociological speek, internally differentiated. Slowly, but steadily, the swath ofthat common religious culture is diminishing. Christianity is still by far the predominant religion here, but others have significant presence, too. The religious diversity of Western countries increasingly mirrors religious diversity in the world as a whole. Liberal democracy emerged in the West as an attempt to accomodate diverse religious perspectives on life within a single polity. But when religion leaves the public square - or is driven from it - the public square does not remain empty. Instead, it becomes filled with a diffuse phenomenon called secularism. The pluralist account of relations among religions fits rather nicely into the role assigned to religion by liberal democracy. The main trouble with the pluralist account of the relations among religions is that it tries to reduce religious diversity to an underlying sameness. But religions simply do not have a common core - a crucial claim that must be left undefended here. Still, the dynamic character of each religion and the overlaps between them give some reason to hope that the perspectives of various people of faith need not always clash and that, when they do, they need not clash permanently. To speak in a Christian voice is to speak out of these two fundamental convictions: that God loves all people, especially the transgressors, and that religious identity is circumscribed by permeable boundaries
