Because I have nothing good to say...

...I thought it would be beneficial to quote someone who does.

For the past few weeks--both in regards to my thesis and the Theology of the Body talks I helped give to some awesome Evangelicals--the issue of religious plurality in society has been making my nose itch. And like most fits of nasal irritation, the solution is a bit out of my reach. But I present here an introductory quote from Christopher Dawson that seems practically applicable:

"[A pluralistic society] lays a greater weight of spiritual responsibility on the individual Christian. He can no longer afford to take his religion for granted. If he is to stand firm amid the shifting sands of democratic opinion, he must know where he stands and what he stands for, and since he is in constant contact with other forms of Christianity, he must know where they stand too--where they agree and where they differ and how far it is possible or necessary to co-operate with them in defense of their common interests and common spiritual values.

All this involves a considerable intellectual as well as a moral effort [emphasis mine], an effort which it is difficult for us to make at the present day when the whole tendency of modern popular education and public opinion is concentrating out attention on the problems of our modern secular democratic and technological culture which force themselves on our attention, through the thousand brazen tongues of organized publicity."--Christopher Dawson, from the Introduction of The Formation of Christendom.