ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a context for understanding religion, spirituality, and aging by surveying the current landscape of American religion and examining some of the historical currents that made it what it is. Two deep historical patterns, and the cultural and institutional values they exhibit, are “religious diversity” and “individuation,” and the intersections between them. Each of those two processes, and the two together, are producing ever more options for Americans in terms of: (a) organizational commitment and (b) religious beliefs and practices. People have more religious options from which to choose, and more autonomy to make such choices in terms of their individual wants, needs, and preferences. And in turn, diversification and individuation are putting ever more pressure on Americans to understand and legitimate their religious involvement along those lines. This chapter traces the history of religious diversity as driven by immigration and the ways in which social and cultural trends that emphasize individual autonomy and choice affect all faith traditions. It concludes with consideration of the particular issues these contextual factors bring to the study of religion, spirituality, and aging.
