“A” or “The”
Multiculturalism or old-style Pluralism

At Harvard University two women, one a Methodist and one an Episcopalian, are co-Masters of Lowell House. Recently, the Methodist professor has written a book that she dedicated to her partner, the Episcopalian (who is both a professor and a priest).

This book is an important statement and argument for multiculturalism as a social and religious doctrine. The title is, A NEW RELIGIOUS AMERICA (Harper, $27.00) and the author is Diana L.Eck, professor of comparative religion. It is dedicated to Dorothy Austin, professor of psychology & religion.

It is an important book for educated Episcopalians, especially those claiming to be “orthodox”, to read and for this reason. It provides a very clear and attractive account of one of the major ideologies informing the elite of the so-called “National Church” of the ECUSA.

That is, this book provides a view of religion in America that celebrates & tolerates all forms of worship, doctrine and morality that claim to be no more than “ a way, a truth and a life” for the gaining of access to deity. What counts, therefore, is not a claim to objective truth but rather a rich religious experience of “deity”; and it matters not whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Native American words and forms are used to express this experience.

So any group making the claim that it worships The one and true GOD and possesses by Revelation from this Deity objective truth in doctrine and morality is outside the multicultural pale; it needs to come of age and to adjust its position to conform to the presuppositions and reality of multiculturalism (which apparently the Harvard Divinity School has already done and which Professor Eck celebrates).

What Eck is describing or calling for is a major step forward for America. First of all, the USA was a Protestant country, with the Protestant religion informing the ideas and principles of the whole nation. Then, after the arrival of many Roman Catholics and some Jews, there developed in this century a pact between Protestant, Jew and Catholic to stand for “Judaeo-Christian” principles or values. Today, we are seeing (she believes and also works for) the arrival of multiculturalism where America is not “one nation under God” but rather “one nation under many gods.”

This view of American religion does not argue for or expect all groups and types eventually to merge into one great denomination of toleration. Rather, it expects each group or church or denomination or religion to pursue its own forms of religious experience but to do so always in the “a” mood, rather than the “the” mood. That is, there is to be a new pluralism of many differing groups and they are united by an understanding for religious purposes of relativism and subjectivism. And so each form and expression is “true for us/me.”

So, to take an example, to show how this could work. Episcopalians do not cease to be Episcopalians but rather they see their religion as one cultural form (an Anglican, liturgical form) by which people are enabled to have religious experience and thereby know “god.” In speaking of Jesus they refer to him as “a way, a truth and a life” and “a Saviour” and “a teacher” and “a mediator.” They enjoy their religion but do not claim too much for it, as they recognize that other religions and groups also seek religious affirmation and experience in their own ways.

So, while they are tolerant of all sincere attempts to find deity and know it/him/her they are intolerant of the “fundamentalists” in their midst – those who make absolutist claims for the mediatorship of Jesus Christ and will not compromise (e.g., like the Rev’d Fr. Sam Edwards of Maryland!). It may be added that it is permitted for some conservative members to say “the way & the truth and the life” of Jesus Christ, if (and only if) they keep this form of speech to their own circle and do not try to make it a denominational policy.


Professor Eck is a woman with a vision and a mission and she is very persuasive. Her book will, I predict, strengthen the multicultural lobby in the ECUSA and other major US denominations of the old/main line. It remains true, however, despite her eloquence and and advocacy that a majority of Americans still remain either in the old Protestant culture (described by de Tocqueville in “Democracy in America”) or in the Judaeo-Christian culture celebrated by Will Herberg in the book, “Protestant, Catholic, Jew.”

YET to read her book is to become acquainted with the religious ideology and commitment that drives leaders of the ECUSA and other churches to take their people away from biblical, historic and orthodox Christianity into what they see as a superior form of religion, applicable to the modern age and the social reality of the USA. Perhaps we have to admit that they have gone so far on this journey and destroyed much of the ground on which they stood that it is impossible for them ever to do a U-turn even if they ever desired to do so.

Meanwhile, the old-style Protestants (e.g., Southern Baptists) seem to prosper and grow as also do the many new forms of Protestant interdenominational Bible and community churches, along with the new forms of Anglican expression (e.g., the CEC and the AMiA). And traditional forms of Catholicism and Orthodoxy are also gaining ground.

The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon September 25 2001