THE CHRISTIAN PLURALIST

Book Review: The Christian Pluralist

by William C. Buffie and John R. Charles

(Authorhouse, 2006)

Reviewed by Jim Burklo, member, The Center for Progressive Christianity Executive Council

Pastor, Sausalito Presbyterian Church

When Southport United Methodist Church in Indianapolis began promoting The Purpose Driven Life, two men in the pews discovered a purpose for themselves that Rick Warren didn’t recommend.  Warren’s facile certitude about faith did not ring true with their own experience and understanding.  So they took matters into their own hands and wrote a book that offered an alternative perspective on Christianity. 

Bill Buffie and John Charles exemplify the grass roots of the progressive Christian movement.  They are widely-read, deeply thoughtful people who have prayerfully considered great theological questions.  They are weary of hearing simple religious formulas and platitudes in church. They are lay people who aren’t going to take it lying down any more.  “Lay people are not ignorant with respect to the complexities and inconsistencies dotting the landscape of the history of world religions.  Don’t ‘dumb down’ the message for us,” they say in their new book, The Christian Pluralist (p 47).  Buffie is a medical doctor and Charles is a federal agency executive.  They knew each other well through their participation in the adult education programs of their church, in which they found themselves publicly challenging the fundamentalist theology that was presented.

Their book is particularly useful precisely because it is such a well-spoken voice from the pews.  Buffie and Charles employ an extraordinary number of question marks in their writing.  The Christian Pluralist exudes an attitude of curiosity and humility, revealing the authors’ commitment to the quest for further understanding.  Each chapter of the book closes with a set of questions that invite the reader to examine carefully his or her beliefs, reflecting the authors’ trust that this process will lead to spiritual growth and to deeper respect among adherents of different religions.  The structure of the book lends itself very well to use by adult education classes in churches, discussion groups, and book clubs.   

“Pluralists believe that there are a wide variety of faiths that all are legitimate, and contain valuable truths, when considered from the proper cultural perspective.” (p xxvii)  “Tolerance of the perspective of others is simply not enough.” (p xxx)  Pluralism is at the heart of their faith experience, and it is through this principle that they interpret the Christian tradition.  For instance, they suggest that the doctrine of the Trinity illustrates the pluralistic heart of the faith.  “If the orthodox Christian does believe in God manifest as three separate entities simultaneously.... then it is not unreasonable to suggest that God’s nature, and the path to salvation itself, if truly available, might be revealed by three (or more) mechanisms simultaneously.” (p 13)

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