The Delicate Balance of Modesty and Assertiveness
In George Marsden’s “The State of Evangelical Scholarship” he outlines a path for Christian academics, one that seems wise to us:
For us as scholars this means that our agenda ought to be directed toward building for our community as solid a place in the pluralistic intellectual life of our civilization as is consistent with our principles. Helping to establish the intellectual viability of our world view and pointing out the shortcomings of alternatives can be an important service to our community and an important dimension of our witness to the world. To perform this task properly requires a delicate combination of modesty and assertiveness. Our intellectual life must display the Christian qualities of self-criticism and generosity to others. Richard Neuhaus puts it well when he says we should have “reverence for those with whom we disagree.” At the same time, we properly attempt to establish for others the attractiveness of our world view.
We commend this approach, particularly the call to establish the viability of our own worldview while demonstrating generosity and respect towards those with whom we disagree.
Confident Pluralism
More recently John Inazu has suggested Christians seek a posture of “confident pluralism”:
The intuition for a confident pluralism flows out of what John Rawls famously called “the fact of pluralism”—the recognition that we live in a society of “a plurality of conflicting, and indeed incommensurable, conceptions of the meaning, value and purpose of human life.” The fact of pluralism creates a political and social question of whether and how we can live with these deep differences. A confident pluralism maintains that we can do so . . . a confident pluralism rooted in the conviction that protecting the integrity of one’s own beliefs and normative commitments does not depend on coercively silencing opposing views. A confident pluralism seeks to maximize the spaces where dialogue and persuasion can coexist alongside deep and intractable differences about beliefs, commitments, and ways of life.
Both Inazu and Marsden reject any form of triumphalism, seeking rather to find a place for Christian perspectives within a pluralistic university. These views present immense challenges, but nevertheless hold great wisdom for Christ followers in academy.
Rick Hove and Heather Holleman