2.1.2.1 Meaning of Relativism
Relativism is based on the assumption that there are no universal truths. Contingent reasons may be found for preferring one viewpoint to another, but no viewpoint is recognised as absolute. Behind this lies the idea either that there is no ‘reality’ of which we can be sure, or that if there is we have no certain or objective way of knowing it. All knowledge, therefore, is seen as subject to interpretation, social construction or perspective. While this does not necessarily make every worldview equally valid, it does mean that all truth claims must be held as provisional, rather than ultimate.
2.1.2.2 Relativism in Relation to Pluralism
Relativism often goes hand in hand with ideological pluralism. No previous age has afforded its people such an open world or so diverse a range of social experience. The possibility of travel and the global reach of the media combine to make people more aware of other cultures and beliefs than before. This can weaken certainty in the rightness of one’s own beliefs. Even for those who do not travel, the existence of ‘other faith communities’ in the midst of traditional British culture introduces alternative ways of looking at God and the world and, in the eyes of some, undermines confidence that the Christian faith is the only way. Christianity then comes to be seen as the expression of a particular culture rather than being universally valid - a religion to be compared and contrasted with others and to be viewed as at most only ‘relatively’ true. This in turn has played a part in the marginalisation of Christian moral teaching from the public sphere. Morality, rather than being seen as universally true, is thought to be true relative to a particular culture, or even determined on the basis of individual choice. ‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ has given way, at best, to ‘right and wrong for whom?’ As Patricia Morgan of the Institute of Economic Affairs has noted, we have entered a world in which yesterday’s immoralities have become today’s family forms.[1] Not only are seven times more marriages dissolved today than in 1961, with divorce rates climbing above 40%; cohabitation outside wedlock has doubled in the last twenty years alone, as has the proportion of lone parent households. In addition, one child in every four now experiences the trauma of family breakdown.[2] Of course, the actual phenomenon of family breakdown is not new; as Morgan points out, however, what has changed is the scale on which it is occurring, and the widespread claim that it is actually ‘nothing to worry about’.[3]
2.1.2.3 Effect on Government Policy
The combined effects of pluralism and relativism have been evident in moves by various modern British governments to adopt a self-consciously neutral stance on matters of institutional religion and personal morality. Successive British parliaments have seen areas of life once legislated in accordance with Christian moral precepts progressively deregulated, from Sunday trading to sexual lifestyle, from abortion to marriage and divorce. Judging by the submissions received for this project, many Christians have found this move away from public Christian morality troubling, and have sought to resist it out of a fear that the common good will otherwise be eroded. In their view, the extreme relativisation and privatisation of morality does not provide an adequate basis for a civil society or an integrated culture. Closely related to these trends is the growing emphasis in British political life on the imperative of tolerance. This is dealt with specifically in 2.1.9.
[1] Patricia Morgan, Farewell to the Family? Family Breakdown in Britain and the USA (London: Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society, 1995).
[2] Source: Central Statistical Office, Social Trends: 1996 Edition (London: HMSO, 1996), 54, 57-59.
[3] Morgan, Farewell to the Family?
