Familial Pluralism and Religion

The growth of social and cultural diversity in modern societies has transformed social norms surrounding marriage, divorce, adoption and so forth. Same sex marriage and abortion have been especially contested, while the growth of diverse households is one aspect of social and religious pluralism. While legislation quite often argues in favour of equality of treatment of citizens regardless of cultural or sexual orientation these developments that we might call ‘the modernisation of the family’ or even 'post-familialism' have been opposed by the Roman Catholic Church in particular, but no less by other churches such as Evangelical Protestants, thereby creating social conflicts in modern societies. The growing presence of Islamic Churches in the public increases the multiplicity of religiously oriented stances participating to the debate. The centre investigates the different ways religious and cultural diversity concerning family arrangements is handled in European and American societies.