Berlinian Pluralism and Abrahamic Monotheism

This article examines the longstanding suspicion that value-pluralism is intrinsically incompatible with monotheistic commitment, an objection that threatens to undermine the resurgence of pluralist ideas in different denominational strands of contemporary Christian political theology. Since value-pluralism is often taken to be closely wedded to the logic of political liberalism, the charge of incompatibility carries a special force. For, taken together, the two claims imply that monotheistic commitment sits uneasily alongside political liberalism. Having set out the version of value-pluralism expounded in the thought of its most influential contemporary advocate, the article raises three objections to the doctrine. It then examines ways to refine it before concluding that there is no reason to suppose that, so refined, it is intrinsically incompatible with monotheistic commitment.