What are the Impacts of Religious Diversity? Regions in three European Countries Compared

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While religious diversity has been increasing in many European societies, there is an ongoing debate on how to explain this trend and to evaluate its religious and social impacts. In particular, protagonists of rational choice theory claim that pluralisation leads to religious vitalisation. However, this hypothesis has not been tested convincingly, mainly due to a lack in the development of adequate measuring instruments. The proposed project aims to close this gap by testing a new multi-dimensional model for measuring organisational and adherence diversity, as well as their impacts on religious vitality and civil society. The model has been developed by scholars in the sociology and psychology of religion during research on religious pluralization in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The multi-dimensional measuring model will be used to compare different regions within Germany, Finland, and Slovenia. These countries have been selected for their diverging political and religious backgrounds: Finland as being mainly influenced by the Lutheran Church, Slovenia by Roman Catholicism on the one hand and until 1989 by a communist regime on the other, and Germany characterised by a mixture of denominations and quite a high percentage of unaffiliated persons. By focussing on one rural and one urban region within each of these countries, we will also address the factor of population density, which has often been neglected in research on religious diversity. Altogether, the proposed procedure of correlating religious diversity with other religious and social factors (like interreligious dialogue, religious conflicts, efforts to integrate foreign or marginal religious communities, the degree of xenophobia, etc.) will enhance our understanding of the relationship between religious life, civic values, and social coherence. Thus, the project will provide information for political and legal arrangements for religious pluralism within the European unification process.