Democracy And the New Religious Pluralism

Religious pluralism is everywhere in today's politics. Increased immigration flows, the collapse of communism, and the globalization of communications technologies have all fostered a wider variety of religious beliefs, practices, and organizations within and across democratic societies. This is true in both the United States and Europe, where growing and diverse minority communities are transforming the political landscape. As a result, controversies over such things as headscarves and depictions of Mohammed are unsettling a largely secular Europe, while a Christian majority in the United States faces familiar questions about church-state relations amid unprecedented religious diversity. Far from receding into the background, religious language pervades arguments around established issues such as abortion and capital punishment, and new ones such as stem cell research and same-sex marriage.

Thomas Banchoff is Associate Professor of Government and Director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. He is the author of The German Problem Transformed: Institutions, Politics, and Foreign Policy (1999) and co-editor of Legitimacy and the European Union: The Contested Polity (1999).