Active versus passive pluralism : a changing style of civil religion?
By: HECHT, Richard D
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ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks : SAGE, July 2007The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science 612, p. 133-151Abstract: The reform of the United States Immigration Act in 1965 transformed what Robert Bellah identified as "American civil religion" and one of its central components: America's unique religious pluralism. At midcentury, Will Herberg showed how religion functions in the creation of American identity through what we call here "passive pluralism." This passive pluralism allowed the mainline religions of America to claim a presence within the nation. But the new immigration patterns have created what the author calls here "active pluralism," which lays assertive claim to the meanings of public time and space. This argument is explored through the construction of an Orthodox Jewish ritual space or eruv in Los Angeles.
The reform of the United States Immigration Act in 1965 transformed what Robert Bellah identified as "American civil religion" and one of its central components: America's unique religious pluralism. At midcentury, Will Herberg showed how religion functions in the creation of American identity through what we call here "passive pluralism." This passive pluralism allowed the mainline religions of America to claim a presence within the nation. But the new immigration patterns have created what the author calls here "active pluralism," which lays assertive claim to the meanings of public time and space. This argument is explored through the construction of an Orthodox Jewish ritual space or eruv in Los Angeles.
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