Religious Diversity and Religious Vitality: New Measuring Strategies and Empirical Evidence

Huber, Stefan; Krech, Volkhard; Hero, Markus; Ketola, Kimmo; Traunmüller, Richard (2013). Religious Diversity and Religious Vitality: New Measuring Strategies and Empirical Evidence. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 9, p. 3. The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion, Philosophy and Science, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania

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Quantitative studies of the conditions and consequences of religious diversity are based mostly on indices that measure the variety of religious membership in a particular region. However, this line of research has become stagnant, and the question of whether diversity affects religious vitality remains unanswered. This article attempts to shed new light on the discussion by measuring religious diversity differently and capturing religious vitality independently of membership figures. In particular, it contrasts the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index based on membership proportions with a second measure of diversity: an index of organizational diversity. Conversely, the dependent variable religious vitality is measured not by using rates of participation in religious organizations but via the Centrality of Religion Scale. Based on ecological and individual level data of forty-three local regions in Finland, Germany, and Slovenia and using multilevel analysis, our results suggest that religious diversity is related to religious vitality. However, the nature of this association differs across subgroups.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Review Article)
Division/Institute:	01 Faculty of Theology > Department of Protestant Theology [discontinued] > Institute of Practical Theology [discontinued] > Empirical Religious Research and Theory of Inter-religious Communication [discontinued]
UniBE Contributor:	Huber, Stefan Georg
Subjects:	100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology 200 Religion 200 Religion > 230 Christianity & Christian theology 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 310 Statistics
ISSN:	1556-3723
Publisher:	The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion, Philosophy and Science, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania
Language:	English
Submitter:	Damian Rafael Kessi
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2015 11:28
Last Modified:	02 Mar 2023 23:26
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/73087