Praising the secular vision of India, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.
Rowan Williams, said the Indian constitution has “consistently tried to
define a 'secularism' that is not hostile to multiple religious
identities."
The example of India highlights that "the law and the state cannot just treat a population as a collection of individuals; their actual identity is already bound up with values and beliefs," said the Archbishop while giving the Chevening Lecture at New Delhi entitled "Pluralism and the Dialogue of Religions".
"The success or otherwise of India's capacity to manage 'interconnected differences' will have significance well beyond India's borders," he noted.
On the question of religious pluralism Dr. Williams argues against both the religious relativism which reduces religious narratives to "a basic common vision" and the idea that the world of religions is one of "mutually uncomprehending systems".
Instead he argues in favour of a "careful and attentive interaction between communities of religious practice".
Further, Dr. Williams proposes a political pluralism which he has described elsewhere as an 'argumentative democracy', and a religious pluralism which both acknowledges the reality of history but also the “dimensions of [religious] identity that we create as well as inherit".
India's continuing struggle with the challenges of both political and religious pluralism is "a matter of concern and importance....caught up as we often are in the contemporary world between renewed bids for theocracy and anxious efforts to secure the complete privatising of faith," he said.
The Archbishop is currently on a two-week visit to India to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Church of North India as well as visit congregations of the Church of South India and the Mar Thoma Church.
The example of India highlights that "the law and the state cannot just treat a population as a collection of individuals; their actual identity is already bound up with values and beliefs," said the Archbishop while giving the Chevening Lecture at New Delhi entitled "Pluralism and the Dialogue of Religions".
"The success or otherwise of India's capacity to manage 'interconnected differences' will have significance well beyond India's borders," he noted.
On the question of religious pluralism Dr. Williams argues against both the religious relativism which reduces religious narratives to "a basic common vision" and the idea that the world of religions is one of "mutually uncomprehending systems".
Instead he argues in favour of a "careful and attentive interaction between communities of religious practice".
Further, Dr. Williams proposes a political pluralism which he has described elsewhere as an 'argumentative democracy', and a religious pluralism which both acknowledges the reality of history but also the “dimensions of [religious] identity that we create as well as inherit".
India's continuing struggle with the challenges of both political and religious pluralism is "a matter of concern and importance....caught up as we often are in the contemporary world between renewed bids for theocracy and anxious efforts to secure the complete privatising of faith," he said.
The Archbishop is currently on a two-week visit to India to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Church of North India as well as visit congregations of the Church of South India and the Mar Thoma Church.
SIC: CT/INDIA