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This research project examines individual religious choices in times of increasing religious plurality and individualization. By means of an empirical investigation in the religious field of Buenos Aires, the project will determine which factors influence the choice of religious affiliation. Of central concern is the question of whether actors choose their religious affiliation – and thus simultaneously a religious style – according to a system of religious preferences (religious tastes) or whether the choice of religious affiliation is based on the rational calculation of benefits - as suggested by rational choice theorists of religion - or whether religious choices are simply a product of coincidence. The empirical research is carried out in different Pentecostal churches in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Today we can observe a growing “market” of religious alternatives. In societies of religious freedom and plurality individuals are free to choose to be Zen-Buddhists, Shiite-Muslims, Pentecostal Christians, Hindus, charismatic Catholics, or to consider themselves as atheists. A rising religious mobility is the product of this new plurality. It is becoming normal to choose religious practices and beliefs, whereas remaining in the inherited religious system becomes more and more the exception, as Peter Berger has claimed. To sum up: people are increasingly choosing their own religious forms of expression and beliefs.
In the context of a rising religious mobility and highly competitive religious markets, the individual religious choice turns out to be a fundamental element for understanding the dynamics of religion in modern societies.
Despite the increasing presence of religious choice, few studies have been conducted on this phenomenon. The existing investigations on religious choice have mostly focused on the biographical reasons for switching religious affiliations or have produced extensive descriptions of the processes of conversion, meanwhile neglecting the act of religious choice. Why individuals choose a particular religious group is still an open question. Hence, the intended research project focuses on this question and investigates the variables that influence the process of affiliating with certain religious groups.
The empirical research will be carried out in different Pentecostal churches in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the last decades, the religious field of Argentina has experienced an immense expansion of Pentecostalism. A survey conducted in early 2008 shows that 7.9 percent of the Argentine population considers themselves Pentecostals.
Furthermore Pentecostalism in Argentina demonstrates an extensive internal diversity that reveals a wide variation in Pentecostal styles. The project will use this diversity in order to examine the affiliation with different forms of Pentecostalism. The core questions of the intended investigation are:
In order to examine these questions, qualitative interviews will be carried out with individuals who chose to affiliate with particular Pentecostal churches in the Argentine capital. To expand this perspective and to examine which influential factors support or prevent an affiliation with Pentecostalism, additional interviews will be carried out with individuals who did not affiliate with Pentecostalism but rather with another religious option in the religious “market” of Buenos Aires, such as Baptists or Methodists.
Clarification is required as to whether the term “religious choice” is actually an appropriate description of religious affiliation or whether the process of religious affiliation is simply a set of contingent coincidences with a passively rather than actively acting individual. If, however, the process of religious affiliation can indeed be described as a form of religious choice, the investigation must then turn to the question of whether the “act of choice” is based on individual religious preferences or if it is the product of a rational calculation of benefits - as the rational choice theory suggests. If religious choices are influenced by individual religious preferences, further research must be conducted on the relationships between individual preferences and social contexts. It would be of central concern to establish if whether and to what extent the social context of the individual actors determines individuals’ preference structures – and thus finally their religious choices.
If correlations between social context (for example the actors’ social status) and religious choice can be demonstrated, conclusions can be drawn about the reconstruction of religious fields under conditions of increased religious mobility. Rising mobility within religious fields then does not lead to an unstructured “chaos” but rather results in new structures that exhibit analogies to the social frames of religious “consumers”.
Researcher:
Jens Köhrsen
In cooperation with:
CEIL PIETTE, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Funding:
Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
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