The problem with pluralism

Whittaker Chambers wrote that "the crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God." Pluralism is the manifestation of such indifference because it admits that belief is subjective and personal rather than an expression of existential reality. A believer cannot profess to be a good Jew, Christian, or Muslim while admitting to the theological truth of another faith. But, while different faiths cannot simultaneously represent the truth of ultimate existence, belief in one faith does not demand intolerance toward others.
Avery Cardinal Dulles confronted this issue in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in a lecture entitled "Christ Among the Religions." There, Dulles acknowledged that we live in a society that "includes people of many faiths and of no faith at all," and examined four possible models by which different faiths can relate to one another: coercion, convergence, pluralism, and tolerance.