Introduction: Pluralism as Legitimization of Diversity

Abstract

The prospect of religious pluralism places the study of religions and spiritualities outside the enclosure within which sociology of religion had voluntarily locked itself for several decades. While there were certainly valuable exceptions and dissident voices, there is no doubt that the theory of secularization has largely dictated the agenda of the sociological study of religion, especially in Europe, for more than 40 years since the 1960s. In this introduction we retrace briefly the path that sociology of religion has taken in recent decades by highlighting what were the main hubs that led to the change of perspective in the study of contemporary religious phenomena.

What has happened in this span of time as a result of which the category of secularization, which at the moment of its greatest fortune had become almost a sociological dogma, has slowly but inevitably lost its explanatory power? To understand the scope of the category of pluralism, which is placed outside the debate on secularization, it is useful to review briefly the changes in the religious landscape between the second and third millennium, passing the theories of “God’s death” to the recognition of his “return” and his “revenge”.