Religious Pluralism and Crises of Identity

Abstract

At the dawn of the new millennium religion is going through some radical changes: the first of these is related to the fact that the processes of secularization have had an influence on traditional religions, are doing so today and will continue to do so, starting with Christianity in its different forms, but they have not precipitated the decline of religion as an institutional and public factor and still less the decline of faith as a private phenomenon.What we are experiencing is rather a huge process of transformation and adaptation of the religious as a private dimension and religion as an institutional factor, resulting in a profound metamorphosis of the socio-cultural situation (see Lyon, 2000). The two main elements of the change are as follows: the triumph of the mass media and consumer society and the processes of globalization (Kurz, 1995) are radically changing the very face of religion: groups and movements with a clear religious identity are involved in a relentless process that is at the same time a process of adaptation and resistance to these changes. The outcome of this process is uncertain, but there is no doubt that it is only where religions prove they are capable of using and adapting their messages of salvation to the new mass media system that they will be able to survive and maybe even spread.