Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 19:2 (Fall 2022)
Article: A Credible Witness: A Pluriform Church in a Pluralist Culture
Author: Daniel T. Slavich

A Credible Witness: A Pluriform Church in a Pluralist Culture

Daniel T. Slavich

Daniel T. Slavich serves as pastor of Cross United Church in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Not long before his death, sociologist Peter Berger claimed, against the well-known thesis of Charles Taylor, “We don’t live in a secular age; we live in a pluralist age.”1 While the first half of his thesis might be debated, the second half surely cannot be. The task of theology in general and ecclesiology in particular must meet our current pluralist moment and work toward answers to questions such as these: What does it mean for the church to “be the church” in this pluralist context? How should the church approach the reality of its existence in a pluralist culture? How now can the church most effectively bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ? My present burden is to work toward a possible answer to such questions. To do that I will argue that the pluriform character of a healthy local church witnesses with unique credibility to the reality of the triune God and his gospel in a pluralist culture. This thesis will be built in four steps.

First, I will briefly explore and broadly define the nature of various types of pluralities ultimately defining a “pluralist culture” in terms of what James Davison Hunter calls “the objective reality of dissimilarity.”2 Second, I will contrast this pluralist vision with Oliver O’Donovan’s concept of pluriformity.3 Third, this concept of pluriformity will be deployed ecclesiologically. I will define the ontology of a local church as proclamation of the gospel and practice

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of the sacraments, and the health of a local church as comprised of a regenerate and ethnically diverse membership, defining such a church as a “pluriform local church.” Fourth, I will explore such a pluriform local church’s witness about the triune God of the gospel in two modes, first to the spiritual powers cosmically in light of Ephesians 3:10, and second to a pluralist context culturally, engaging Richard Niebuhr’s typology for the relationship of Christ/church to culture, in which the pluriform local church exists both “for” and “against” the culture it inhabits.4

As I will make clear, I will not here argue or assume that this is the only mode of ecclesial faithfulness; rather, I propose that it might be one mode of such faithfulness in which the church might pursue unity in imitation of the unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit, so that th...