What is the added value of 'Religion' in multicultural discourse?

Abstract

This article is based on a discussion of the scientific concept of ‘Subjectivity’ as proposed by Father George F. McLean, former head of the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (CRVP) at Catholic University, Washington DC. The suggestions contained herein are derived from a Taufer understanding of the concept of the secular state and the "Diaspora Church" taken from the writings of Hans-Juergen Goertz, Paul Peachey, Ernst Troeltsch and John Howard Yoder. Furthermore, it demonstrates that, given an Abrahamic understanding of God, as well as a subjective approach to both state and church, the unique 'added value' that only religion can offer multicultural society, and thus becoming manifest in the lives of individual activists and faith-based initiatives at the outset of the 21st century. With respect to the relationship between majority and minority communities, discourse in the MENA region and in European constitutional debate now centres on questions concerning which role, if any, that a secular state should play in structuring a multicultural and multiconfessional society. To answer this question, clarity must first be established concerning the term secular, upon which definitions of the multicultural and multiconfessional are commonly grounded. The position taken in this article is based on a somewhat unorthodox approach to the secular, reflecting both this author's extensive political and academic experience in the multicultural arena in North America, Western Europe, and the Middle East, as well as his personal religious convictions rooted in the tradition of the early 16th century "Radical Reformation."

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