Abstract

languages, and values in a particular country. Active multicultural policies are required to achieve this and to thereby make democracy viable in divided societies.3 This article consists of four sections. I will begin by setting out the concept of multicultural democracy, as advocated by the UNDP, in general. Next, I will specifically deal with the topic of church and state, which is both at the heart of this concept and traditionally of particular interest to Christian Philosophy. Section three looks at the Reformed contribution to the topic of church and state in religiously plural societies in the past. Finally, section four raises the question how the notion of pluriform democracy, as developed by Reformed thinkers and put into practice in the Netherlands during the better part of the twentieth century, relates to the concept of multicultural democracy. As the subtitle already indicates, the article is very much meant to serve as a working paper, not as the final word on this complex issue. For example, an earlier version of it was presented during the Assembly of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, held in Utrecht, Netherlands, from 12-26 July 2005.4 Although this Assembly had at its disposal a 92-page report on ‘Church, State and the Kingdom of God’, it was unable to reach any final conclusions, and decided to continue its discussion of the topic during the next Assembly in 2009