Challenge of Pluralism - 3rd Edition by J Christopher Soper & Kevin R Den Dulk & Stephen V Monsma (Paperback)

About the Book

In a thoroughly revised and expanded edition that now includes France, this essential text offers a rigorous, systematic comparison of church-state relations in Western democracies. The authors provide an invaluable comparative analysis of a topic that is increasingly a source...

Book Synopsis

In a thoroughly revised and expanded edition that now includes France, this essential text offers a rigorous, systematic comparison of church-state relations in Western democracies. The authors provide an invaluable comparative analysis of a topic that is increasingly a source of profound political and social conflict.

Review Quotes

A genuine comparative study undertaken by two political scientists surveying church-state relations and it brings together a great deal of valuable historical, legal, and other information . . . relevant to its subject.

A useful comparative study. . . . This survey can help Americans appreciate the peculiarities, both good and bad, of our church-state arrangements.

An exceptionally illuminating book . . . this volume is, in short, an excellent piece of scholarship and deserves a wide readership.

Marvelous. The authors perform the rare and difficult feat of generating a genuinely cross-national analysis, while paying strict, detailed attention to the nuances of each country. This book will change the manner in which church-state relations are contested in the United States and is required reading for anyone, at any level.

One of my favorite books on religion in public life. On a subject especially in need of light, insight, and balance, its very readable historical, legal, and comparative analyses are most enlightening and fair. I recommend it for college classes and as good reading for ordinary citizens.


The addition of a chapter on France is a wonderful feature of this new edition, showing students the full range of regimes of religion and state in established democracies. When I began lecturing on religion and politics in the 1970s, French audiences would smile indulgently at the crazy behavior of Americans in mixing religion and politics. On recent visits, they ask me anxiously for advice on how the United States has so successfully integrated its religious newcomers. This volume traces the changes in the legal position of religion over the decades and remains the gold standard of books on religion and state from a comparative perspective.

The argument of the book is not why America is right, but on the contrary, why the other democracies do it better. The methodology is comparative only after the historical evolution of church-state relationships in each society has been examined with some subtlety. It is a model of a worthwhile comparative study.

The new edition of this important volume comes at a crucial time in discussions about managing the relationship between state and religion and protecting the rights of citizens, regardless of their religious, philosophical, or political allegiances. The book contains useful, practical, and easy-to-follow advice and recommendations on how to balance rights and interests of all groups fairly that is relevant for a variety of contexts. Most important, the book reminds us that these crucial questions of how to live well in pluralist societies are never fully answered or settled, that we should never become complacent and assume that our societies are as democratic and inclusive as they possibly can be, and that we should continually seek to improve the conditions for liberty of conscience for all and learn from the experiences of one another.

When it was first published, The Challenge of Pluralism was one of the earliest and most detailed explorations of how Europe is dealing with its changing religious landscape amidst a history of state churches and secularization. With the increasing cultural presence of Islam being felt across the continent, this updated study of Europe's regulation of religion remains all the more relevant and important.

About the Author

J. Christopher Soper is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University.
Kevin R. den Dulk is Paul B. Henry Chair of Political Science and director of the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College. Stephen V. Monsma (1936-2017) was senior fellow at the Henry Institute at Calvin College.