Editing Religious pluralism (section)

==Definition and scopes==
{{Main|Religious tolerance}}
[[File:Kuta Bali Indonesia Puja-Mandala-01.jpg|thumb|Puja Mandala, a temple that symbolizes tolerance of diversity in Indonesia located in [[Kuta, Bali]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.antaranews.com/berita/3445500/puja-mandala-simbol-kerukunan-umat-beragama-di-pulau-bali|title=Puja Mandala, simbol kerukunan umat beragama di Pulau Bali|website=antaranews.com|language=id|access-date=5 October 2024|date=17 March 2023}}</ref> ]]  
[[File:Kazan church.jpg|thumb|[[Temple of All Religions]] in [[Kazan]], Russia ]]
[[File:1893parliament.jpg|thumb|Congress of [[Parliament of the World's Religions]], [[Chicago]], 1893]]

Religious pluralism, to paraphrase the title of a recent academic work, goes beyond mere toleration.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grimshaw |first=Mike |date=2023-01-11 |title=On Canaries, Icebergs and the public sphere: The pragmatic compromise of religious pluralism |url=https://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/kt/article/view/20508 |journal=Khazanah Theologia |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=71–86 |doi=10.15575/kt.v5i1.20508 |issn=2715-9701|doi-access=free }}</ref> Chris Beneke, in ''Beyond Toleration: The Religious Origins of American Pluralism'', explains the difference between religious tolerance and religious pluralism by pointing to the situation in the late 18th century [[United States]]. By the 1730s, in most colonies religious minorities had obtained what contemporaries called [[religious tolerance|religious toleration]]:{{Sfn | Beneke | 2006 | p = 6}} "The policy of toleration relieved religious minorities of some physical punishments and some financial burdens, but it did not make them free from the indignities of prejudice and exclusion. Nor did it make them equal. Those 'tolerated' could still be barred from civil offices, military positions, and university posts."{{Sfn | Beneke | 2006 | p = 6}} In short, religious toleration is only the absence of [[religious persecution]], and does not necessarily preclude [[religious discrimination]]. However, in the following decades something extraordinary happened in the [[Thirteen Colonies]], at least if one views the events from "a late eighteenth-century perspective".{{Sfn | Beneke | 2006 | p = 5}} Gradually the colonial governments expanded the policy of religious toleration, but then, between the 1760s and the 1780s, they replaced it with "something that is usually called [[Freedom of religion|religious liberty]]".{{Sfn | Beneke | 2006 | p = 6}} Mark Silka, in "Defining Religious Pluralism in America: A Regional Analysis", states that religious pluralism "enables a country made up of people of different faiths to exist without sectarian warfare or the persecution of religious minorities. Understood differently in different times and places, it is a [[cultural construct]] that embodies some shared conception of how a country's various religious communities relate to each other and to the larger nation whole."<ref name="Silk 64–81">{{Cite book |last=Silk |first=Mark |title=Defining Religious Pluralism in America: A Regional Analysis |date=July 2007 |volume=612 |pages=64–81}}</ref>

Religious pluralism can be defined as "respecting the otherness of others".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grimshaw |first=Mike |date=2023-01-11 |title=On Canaries, Icebergs and the public sphere: The pragmatic compromise of religious pluralism |url=https://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/kt/article/view/20508 |journal=Khazanah Theologia |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=71–86 |doi=10.15575/kt.v5i1.20508 |s2cid=256164273 |issn=2715-9701|doi-access=free }}</ref> Freedom of religion encompasses all religions acting within the law in a particular region. [[Exclusivist]] religions teach that theirs is the only way to [[salvation]] and to religious truth, and some of them would even argue that it is necessary to suppress the falsehoods taught by other religions. Some [[Protestant]] [[sect]]s argue fiercely against [[Roman Catholicism]], and [[Fundamentalist Christianity|fundamentalist Christians]] of all kinds teach that religious practices like those of [[Paganism]] and [[witchcraft]] are pernicious. This was a common historical attitude prior to the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], and has informed governmental policy into the present day. For instance, [[Saudi Arabia]] has no protection for freedom of religion, and the country's non-Muslim population are at risk for discrimination and arrest on religious grounds. Of course, many religious communities have long been engaged in building peace, justice, and development themselves, and the emergence of the secular peacemaking field has led religious communities to systematize and institutionalize their own peacebuilding and interfaith work. The Catholic Church has worked in development and poverty reduction, human rights, solidarity, and peace, and after [[World War II]], it began to develop specific tools and apply conflict transformation practices.<ref name="Kazemzadeh 2017">{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/43891542 |title=Pluralism and Democracy in Islam |journal=Internal Journal of Acpcs |date=January 2017 |last1=Kazemzadeh |first1=Hamed }}</ref>

Giving one religion or denomination special rights that are denied to others can weaken religious pluralism. This situation was observed in Europe through the [[Lateran Treaty]] and [[Church of England]]. In the modern era, many Islamic countries have laws that criminalize the act of leaving Islam for someone born into a Muslim family, forbid entry to non-Muslims into mosques, and forbid construction of churches, synagogues or temples in their countries.<ref name="Meister 2010 p23-57">Chad Meister (2010), ''The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19534013-6}}, pp. 32–57</ref>

[[Relativism]], the belief that all religions are equal in their value and that none of the religions give access to absolute truth, is an extreme form of [[inclusivism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://carm.org/what-relativism |title=What is relativism?|work=CARM – The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry|date=21 January 2012}}</ref> Likewise, [[syncretism]], the attempt to take over creeds of practices from other religions or even to blend practices or creeds from different religions into one new faith is an extreme form of inter-religious dialogue. Syncretism must not be confused with [[ecumenism]], the attempt to bring closer and eventually reunite different denominations of one religion that have a common origin but were separated by a [[Schism (religion)|schism]].