ABSTRACT
Increases in religious diversity during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have occasioned the rise of both inter- and intra-religious debates, in particular about the role of religious values in social policy (Bouma, 2011; Bouma et al., 2011). The realities of religious diversity raise issues about how to resolve conflicts between values, how to rank values and how to apply values. In this context, appeals are made to ‘universal values’, to ‘compassion’ and to social cohesion as overarching societal concerns that may provide bases for resolving differences. The problems of where to take differences for resolution or disputes for settlement, or mechanisms of reparation for those whose rights are diminished by the exercise of the rights of others loom very large.
