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Ian Markham's Plurality and Christian Ethics1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Peter Sedgwick
Affiliation:
Westcott House Jesus Lane Cambridge CB5 8BP

Extract

Ian Markham's contribution to the Cambridge New Studies in Christian Ethics considers plurality rather than pluralism. The distinction is important for Markham. The latter concept is identified with the relationship of Christianity to world religions and with the thought of john Hick. The former is concerned with the fragmentation of culture, both intellectually and morally. Can there be a distinctive, if not exclusive, Christian position in such a world? Plurality is therefore defined phenonemologically: “the reality of differing and conflicting traditions (or world views) arising in differing communities with different histories”. The definition appeals to the divergence of communities, each with distinctive worldviews and identities. Propositional beliefs form only a part of such an identity. Nor does it carry any theological judgment on its desirability.

Type
Article Review
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1995

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References

1 Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xiv + 225. £32.50.