From Pluralism To Multiculturalism: The Multicultural Development Of American Religions In The 20^th Century

With a long tradition in the United States, the question about religious diversity has been raised again and again as the continuous coming of new immigrants. The twentieth century has seen two important waves of immigration into the United States, which have generated great influences on American society, resulting in many revolutionary transformations in people's thinking on their culture and identity. Through "cultural pluralism" and "multiculturalism" these two cultural ideology movements, Americans' identity on their nation and culture has undergone a development from WASP to the European white, and then to the Multicultural. Reflected in religion, this process could be indicated as Protestantism -"Multi-Christianity" - "Multi-beliefs". Through several centuries, American religious diversity which began in the earliest of the American history has been increasingly expanded in its size, with its meaning changing from Protestant dominance to Jewish-Catholic-Protestant mainstream and then beyond the Christianity. However, from the review of American history, the United States is much more a nation with a strong Christian distinctiveness, than with the long tradition of diversity. During the last third of the twentieth century, some twenty-two million immigrants have established themselves in the United States. In contrast to earlier waves of immigration, these new immigrants trace their origins in large part to non-Christian cultures. The growing diversity out of Christianity has raised a great challenge to the traditional Christian nation which Americans themselves have always regarded. The rising of these new immigrants has not only exerted great influences on social culture, but also been faced with many challenges during their integration process into the mainstream society. And these challenges have also created certain difficulties for the further development of the religious diversity.