ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes and tests a theoretical model of pluralism that helps to clarify the relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation. The secularization theory of religious change has long held that pluralism shatters the sacred canopy and undermines religion. Peter Berger, one of the most respected contributors of writings on secularization, was one of the first to point out that religious pluralism forces religions to compete. Using the vocabulary of organizational ecologists, supplier pluralism is a product of the number of taste dimensions and the supply of resources available. Organizational ecologists point to challenge for groups attempting to serve diverse preferences: a lack of social homophily. Distinguishing between the concepts of preference pluralism, supplier pluralism and consumer pluralism, the model explains that consumer pluralism is a product of religious supply and religious supply is explained by the diversity of religious preferences and the size of the population.
