ABSTRACT
This opening chapter is intended as a resource for the rest of the book, capturing and expressing the spirit in which it has been written. Pluralism is an attitude to conflict that tries to reconcile differences without imposing a false resolution on them or losing sight of the unique value of each position. As an ideology, pluralism seeks to hold unity and diversity in balance-humanity’s age-old struggle, in religion, philosophy, and politics, to hold the tension between the one and the many. My use of the term ‘pluralism’ is intended to show differences from ‘eclecticism’, ‘synthesis’, ‘parallelism’, and ‘perspectivalism’. As the chapter unfolds, the distinctions should become clearer.
