Pluralism in Practice: Case Studies of Leadership in a Religiously Diverse America

Pluralism is an ethic for living together in a society as diverse as ours is today. This accessible collection of twelve case studies in pluralism in practice includes brief scenarios, framing questions, and updates on some of the key dilemmas and decisions we encounter in our multireligious encounters and lives. The book is an introduction to the case method created at Harvard University’s The Pluralism Project, inviting close reading, reflection, and discussion into the dilemmas and disputes of our multireligious society for people who are professionally or passionately involved in developing and fostering our multireligious future.

Elinor (Ellie) Pierce is the research director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. She is the co-editor of With the Best of Intentions (Orbis, 2023). Ellie wrote chapters in the Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies (Georgetown, 2022) and Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field (Beacon, 2018). She has contributed to a range of other publications and media projects, including On Common Ground: World Religions in America and World Religions in Boston: A Guide to Communities and Resources. Ellie is the producer/director of the documentary film Abraham's Bridge (forthcoming); she co-produced and co-directed the documentary Fremont, U.S.A. (2009) and helped to develop Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America (2005). She earned her Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School.

Diana L. Eck has taught at Harvard since 1976. She is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Frederic Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University. She serves in the Departments of Religion and South Asian Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and is also a member of Faculty of Divinity. For twenty years, Professor Eck was Faculty Dean of Lowell House, one of Harvard’s twelve undergraduate residential Houses. She received her B.A from Smith College (1967) in Religion, her M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1968) in South Asian History, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University (1976) in the Comparative Study of Religion.