| The word "religion" means all kinds of holy feelings. As religion plays various social roles in different areas and times, it is very difficult to give it an exact definition. With the development of human civilization and modem technology, secularism is the grant theme of the modern religion development. But this process is not the loss of the "god" but the transfer of the "god". In the 21st century, religion has taken been off its mysterious coats and become an essential part of the social cultures.The development of American religions vividly reflects this secularity process. The United States is both remarkably religious and secular, as 95% Americans polled say they believe in God and more than 1,500 different primary religious organizations-churches, sects, cults, temples, societies, missions exist in this country. Pluralism is one of the most significant themes of the American religious development. Through this process Americans are preserving their religious tradition and strengthening their religious passion. As religious pluralism based on culture pluralism, these two processes have shared the same experience that filled with hardships. This paper has 5 chapters to study both the historical and the practical meaning of the American religious pluralism process.The 1st chapter focuses on the North American religious situation in colonial era and how various Protestant groups founded up their mainstream culture status. From the colonial era, the European immigrants came to this new land with strong religious believes. As most of the early immigrants were Protestants, they controlled public education, politics and other social fields. Protestantism dominated the American mainstream culture for a long time.The 2nd and 3rd chapters research the development of the non-mainstream religions by the case-study method. In the mid-18th century, the American immigrants' sources changed a lot. More and more immigrants were not Protestants but Catholics or Jews that preserved their believes in the new land. With the successes of the Catholics and Jews, these two non-mainstream religions had their own social influences and challenged the Protestants' mainstream status.The 4th chapter is about the reaction of the Protestant that was facing the challenges both from the non-mainstream religions and the social transformations. Through this process, American Protestant groups were divided into two sides and carried out different measures. The liberals chose the "interfaith cooperation" to accept the differences between various religions while the conservatives kept on the "exclusion movement" to limit the development of the non-Protestant religions. As the Catholics and the Jews had their own power that could not be ignored, the "interfaith cooperation" advocated by liberal Protestants were realized. In the 1950s, Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism shared American mainstream status, which symbolized the end of the Protestant era in this country.The 5th chapter explores the present stage of the American religious Pluralism and reviews the whole process of its religious Pluralism. Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism dominated American mainstream is not the end of the religious Pluralism but a new beginning, as the Catholic church and the Jewish church are two demonstrations for other non-mainstream religions. In the 20th century, many immigrants were from non-European areas and brought new religions to America. These new religions also found their position there and continuously promoted American religious Pluralism to fade the gap between the mainstream groups and the non-mainstream groups.In the whole process of the American religious Pluralism, more and more groups come to this new land to enrich its culture that shared by the nation. American religious Pluralism is the result of its immigration character, the choice of its democracy system and the process of its religious secularism. Today people with different believes are sharing the common American value and prosperity. |
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