The Languages of the Public Sphere: Religious Pluralism, Institutional Logics, and Civil Society

Abstract

The increase in religious diversity in the United States since the early 1970s has led to concerns about American national identity and the health of American civil society. Part of this concern emerges from the recognized, but usually unarticulated, parallel between the organizational forms dominant in American civil society institutions and those found among Protestant religious organizations. These organizational forms have an accompanying discourse and institutional logic, premised on voluntarism, individual authenticity, and localism. The question facing civil society from the diversification of the American religious landscape is the extent to which civil society can expand its repertoire of languages and/or traditionally non-Western religious traditions can adapt to these cultural forms.