Pluralism is an ethic for living together in a society as diverse as ours is today. This accessible collection of twelve case studies in pluralism in practice includes brief scenarios, framing questions, and updates on some of the key dilemmas and decisions we encounter in our multireligious encounters and lives. The book is an introduction to the case method created at Harvard University’s The Pluralism Project, inviting close reading, reflection, and discussion into the dilemmas and disputes of our multireligious society for people who are professionally or passionately involved in developing and fostering our multireligious future.

Table of Contents:

Contents

Defining Pluralism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Part 1. Constructing Religious Diversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The Christmas Tree Crisis at Sea-Tac Airport. . . . . . . . . . 3

A Festival of Faiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Part 2. Religion in the American City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Trouble in Troy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A Call to Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Part 3. Fault Lines in Interfaith Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

A Sign of Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Fliers at the Peace Parade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Part 4. Mosques in the American Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

A Mosque in Palos Heights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Center of Dispute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Part 5. Interfaith and Multifaith Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

A Question of Membership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Showing Up for Shabbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Part 6. Navigating Crisis and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

A Quandary in Queens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Forty-Nine Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Afterword: A Pedagogy of Pluralism by Diana L. Eck. . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241