Intensified Religious Pluralism and De-differentiation: the British Example

Abstract

Drawing on surveys of religion and values in Great Britain, this paper suggests that Peter Berger’s paradigm of two pluralisms can be usefully supplemented by taking account of a third kind of intensified pluralism. This involves the breakdown of the boundaries between religions, and between the religious and the secular, and is therefore a pluralism of de-differentiation. It helps explain many features of contemporary religion and identity, including the rise of the “nones” and the increasing reluctance of each new generation to identify with religious (and secular) labels and packages.