Acclaimed contemporary religious expert and emeritus professor for the University of Chicago Martin Marty discussed religious pluralism in America Thursday in Grainger Hall, exploring answers to the question to his lecture titled, ""Why can't we all just get along?""
Marty's lecture marked the opening of a series organized by UW-Madison's Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, which will focus on connections between Jews, Christians and Muslims.
According to Charles Cohen, UW-Madison professor of history and religious studies, the series is about ""encouraging the ongoing traditions of these discussions in the general public.""
Lee Miller, a Madison resident who attended the event, said she has always wanted to hear Marty speak.
""I read a book of his, and a friend of mine had some classes under him years ago,"" she said.
Marty, who has written 5,000 articles and published 50 books on pluralism, said it is a good time to be studying the topic because of the growth of religions.
He said there are currently 38,000 different denominations in the Christian world alone. Additionally, Hinduism and Buddhism are growing four to five times as fast as Christianity and Judaism.
""In the United States, we have an unmatched chance to see all these religions close up,"" Marty said.
Marty stressed the distinction between pluralism and diversity.
The concept of diversity ""just says there's a lot of stuff out there,"" he said.
However, according to Marty, pluralism—the concept that several or many religions comprise the world's attitude toward God—causes conflict because it attempts to come up with a way to deal with the presence of many religions and make sense of power relations in society.
He added it is necessary to be familiar with certain rules and customs, or ethos, in our society to know what is acceptable.
Marty said although pluralism is threatening, it is not going to subside, despite the desire of some to bring the country back to a ""presumed [religious] homogeneity.""
""A lot of pluralism has been defined by the dominant group, and that's who gets to tell the story,"" he said. ""We sing ‘God Bless America' as if there are no other nations.""
