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The Politics of Inclusive Pluralism
A Proposed Foundation for Religious Freedom in a Post-Communist, Democratic China
by Bob Fu
Foreword by Tom Farr
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
"Long live the red terror!" This and other political slogans were used by China's communist rulers as leverage for conflict and conflict management during 1949. China's Cultural Revolution movement understandably fueled anger, fear, and terror among Chinese citizens. Currently, contrary to the positive facade that China, under the control of the Communist Chinese Party (CCP), tries to project regarding human rights, a dark reality reveals a brutal authoritarian state with no concern for religious freedom.
What guiding philosophy could best help procure, provide, and protect religious freedom for all in a post-communist, Christianized, democratic China? Bob Fu argues that while various Christianity-oriented theories may appear promising, they fail to provide an adequate pluralistic foundation for protecting the religious freedoms of people of all faiths and none. The predominant theory of political liberalism in the West likewise fails to prove sufficiently inclusive for all faiths and worldviews. As an alternative, the author defends Baorong Duoyuan (inclusive pluralism), his own contextualized theory modeled after principled pluralism. This model, he believes, has the potential to help ensure that religious freedom for all becomes a reality.
Bob Fu is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the founder/president of China Aid and dedicates himself to advancing religious freedom for all in China. He earned his PhD in the field of religious freedom from the University of Durham. He is editor-in-chief of the Chinese Law & Religion Monitor Journal.
“Bob Fu is brave and thoughtful. His personal experience of the cruelty and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shaped his outlook and helped him to develop ideas about what a reformed and open China—worthy of its great people—might look like. The pluralistic architecture of Baorong Duoyuan would embed diversity, protect identity, and guarantee so many of the human rights so frequently denied by the CCP—including religious freedom and political dissent. The Politics of Inclusive Pluralism is a much needed roadmap for the future and few are better equipped to chart the way than Bob Fu.”
—David Alton, Independent Crossbench Member of the House of Lords
“Bob Fu’s book is the most thoughtful exposition I have seen of the challenges China faces to implement polis as a religious freedom that does justice to both believers and secularists alike. I like the underlying supposition of his book that China will eventually throw off the shackles of totalitarian communist control and move into an epoch of genuine religious freedom. This is a very soulful and excellent constitutional study that deserves to be read by both government officials and advocates of religious freedom all over the world.”
—David Aikman, author of Jesus in Beijing
“Bob Fu has been known as a person of action in rescuing persecuted individuals of religious and ethnic minorities in China. This book establishes him as a profound thinker as well. . . . This is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about religious freedom and church-state relations, or is interested in the future reconstruction of post-communist China.”
—Fenggang Yang, author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule
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