And it is evident not only in the number of differing religions present in America, but also in the remarkable diversity within any given religion. And Christianity certainly is diverse, so much so that non-Christians often despair in trying to find the common denominators between liberals and conservatives, between high church and low church, between ecumenical and sectarian expressions of Christianity. Therefore, as Christians we find ourselves faced with pluralism, even without taking into consideration non-Christian religions. That is the initial question before we can even think about addressing the larger question of religious pluralism in the world. Pluralism is a modern phenomenon and was not characteristic of the early years of Christianity.
Pluralism represents a deterioration of an earlier unity, a falling away from the ideal beginnings.
Thus pluralism is often deemed both new and bad. Attempts to give a positive assessment to pluralism are dismissed as trying to make the most of a bad situation, performing a salvage operation to reclaim some value in an otherwise decaying religious world. In some people's eyes, affirming inherent worth to pluralism is like calling the bad good. Evidence for the way Christians have fallen away from our unified beginnings is drawn from the Bible itself. We've come a long way from that.