ABSTRACT
Conventional understandings of pluralism often inadvertently exclude widespread forms of religious diversity from the pluralistic religious field. In this chapter, I draw on the pluralistic structures of Chinese religion to propose a critical re-examination of conventional Western-derived norms and values of religious pluralism, and explore their implications for covenantal pluralism. I draw on Chinese ethnographic and historical examples and build on the anthropological notion of “poly-ontology” to examine how people concurrently act and think within multiple, possibly incompatible, or incommensurable ontologies, even while they may identify with one, many, or none of them. This model is contrasted to both the “isomorphic” nature of conventional religious pluralism, which advocates for mutual appreciation between bounded identities and affiliations, and to conceptions of syncretism and hybridity that presuppose the erasing of boundaries and the permanent dilution of difference. Awareness of poly-ontological dynamics in Chinese and other cultures can help to enrich the depths of engagement afforded by covenantal pluralism.
