This series, emerging from V-Theo project, hosted at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, brings together a range of scholarly perspectives to rethink pluralism from within and across religious traditions. The contributions explore how theological ideas, historical trajectories, and political institutions intersect to shape diverse approaches to living with difference.
The blogs highlight internal debates, competing interpretations, and evolving practices within Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. It also situates these debates within broader cultural transformations that have reshaped how pluralism is understood and institutionalized.
Contributors address the following questions: What is the status of religious truth in a world of global communication and cultural relativism? How do religious traditions accommodate secularism and democracy…and governance and democratic frameworks? And under what conditions do they support—or resist—pluralistic arrangements?
By addressing these questions the blog series offers a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective on pluralism. It moves beyond simplified binaries—such as religion versus secularism or tolerance versus conflict—to examine the dynamic interactions between belief, power, and social life.
Response: Global Orthodoxy and the Challenge of Internal Pluralism and Conflict
Kristina Stoeckl
July 31, 2026
Response: On the West Bank with the Faithful Left
Shlomo Fischer
July 31, 2026
Response: Protestant Theologies of Pluralism: Negotiating Equality Between the Individual and the Collective
Alessia Passarelli
July 31, 2026
Response: Rethinking Pluralism: The V-Theo Project and the Future of Religious Coexistence
Jocelyne Cesari
July 31, 2026
Response: The Catholic Church and Religious Pluralism
Peter Phan
July 31, 2026
Response: Theologies and Practices of Religious Pluralism Within the Abrahamic Religious Traditions
José Casanova
July 31, 2026
Response: Who Speaks for Islam? Authority, Pluralism, and Reformist Knowledge Production
July 31, 2026
José Casanova is one of the world's leading scholars in the sociology of religion and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center, where his work focuses on globalization, religions, and secularization. He is also professor emeritus at Georgetown University, where he previously taught in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. During 2017 he was the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North at the U.S. Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center, where he worked on a book manuscript on Early Modern Globalization through a Jesuit Prism. He has published works on a broad range of subjects, including religion and globalization, migration and religious pluralism, transnational religions, and sociological theory. His best-known work, Public Religions in the Modern World (University of Chicago Press, 1994), has become a modern classic in the field and has been translated into several languages, including Japanese, Arabic, and Turkish. In 2012, Casanova was awarded the Theology Prize from the Salzburger Hochschulwochen in recognition of his life-long achievement in the field of theology. Casanova is a member of the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, part of the Culture of Encounter Project.
Jocelyne Cesari holds the Chair of Religion and Politics and is director of research at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; she is a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, where she previously was an associate professor of the practice of religion, peace, and conflict resolution in the Department of Government. She is the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School. Former president of the European Academy of Religion, her work on religion, political violence, and conflict resolution has garnered recognition and awards from numerous international organizations such as the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs and the Royal Society for Arts in the United Kingdom. She is a Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion, Politics and Society. She teaches on contemporary Islam and politics at Harvard Divinity School and directs the Islam in the West program. Cesari is a member of the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, part of the Culture of Encounter Project.
