Religious Pluralism: Undermining or Reinforcing Religiosity?

This article deals with the question whether the pluralization of the religious field enhances or undermines the stability and intensity of individual religiosity. The classical theory developed by Peter L. Berger points out the corrosive effects of religious pluralism. The so-called economic market model (Rodney Stark and his followers) revises Berger’s assumption and states that the vitality of religion is not weakened but fostered by the competition of various religious providers. By comparing the effects of religious pluralism in the United States and in some Western European countries, this analysis concludes that a religiously heterogeneous surrounding does not strengthen, but rather weakens individual religiosity. To that extent it confirms Berger’s hypothesis. But if modernization inevitably leads to religious pluralism, as Berger assumes, and religious pluralization leads to religious relativization, we can conclude that modernization very likely leads to secularization, which contradicts Berger’s recantation of the secularization theory.