ABSTRACT
One function of religion is to answer existential questions about the self in ways that provide a sense of identity. Traditionally, these questions have been answered by religious authorities in religious texts, which work to pressure and uphold a person’s identity as a uniform role within society. The task of maintaining these fictions is, however, difficult in democratic and pluralist societies because these societies have generated favourable conditions for making local determinations about one’s own identity. As a consequence, a complex struggle between religious authorities who consider identity fixed and individuals who claim their own authority and consider identity adaptive has ensued, challenging profoundly the classical religious ideal of a unified and coherent system of truths and practices.
