عنوان

The Regime of Religious Pluralism: Uncovering the Cultural Dimensions of American Religious Belonging

Number

TL49952

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

The Regime of Religious Pluralism: Uncovering the Cultural Dimensions of American Religious Belonging

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Bradly Nabors

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Lichterman, Paul

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Southern California

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

111

Text of Note

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor;

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Southern California

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

This dissertation defines and advances a theory of religious pluralism as a cultural structure that: 1) delineates norms of religious propriety while at the same time 2) affording opportunities for cultural belonging amongst those cast as suspect by those very same norms. I argue that religious conventionality in the United States is circumscribed by four prominent and discrete cultural trends in religion: religious individualism, religious voluntarism, religious cognitivism, and personalized notions of God. I then show how those who exist around the margins of the religious mainstream are able to access elements of shared culture that resonate with these structural dimensions in order to articulate a sense of belonging in the U.S. The ability of such religiously unconventional groups to do so poses a challenge to current theories of religious pluralism that posit a dominant Protestant hegemony acting in a binary fashion to create insiders and outsiders. This dissertation argues that the boundary between the religious normative "center" and its outskirts is better conceptualized as boundaries with cultural porosity, with the possibilities for traverse configured differently for each religiously unconventional group.

Sociology

Subject Term

(UMI)AAI10799789;Social sciences;religious propriety

Koch, Holly

Lichterman, Paul

University of Southern California

Call Number

2067321626; 10799789

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y