Pluralism means accepting different religions as valid. Interfaith marriages are often seen as pluralistic when they involve two people tolerating and coexisting with each others’ faith. While monotheistic faiths are mostly not pluralistic, some people find they are more naturally inclined to adapt their thinking in response to what’s around them and accept compromises. Others need a firmer structure of belief in which to operate.
Often the choice to coexist is a practical one of agreeing to differ and share what is important to you, rather than actual religious pluralism. You may feel that you are ‘muddling through’: talking about religious dilemmas as and when they arrive, and making decisions according to what works best at the time.
If you’re the kind of couple for whom this approach works best, you may find with time that an almost 22 unconscious process of ‘dovetailing’ your culture, beliefs and values is happening. Decisions like where to live, who your friends are, the time you spend with your families and the activities and groups you join, even the newspapers you read and television you watch all impact on your wider culture and may ultimately affect your religious ideas too. So the world you actually live in makes the religious context for both of you, whether you’re responding positively or critically to it.0