The Archipelago of Faith: Religious Individualism and Faith Community in America Today

Through an interpretation of ethnographies of four very different religious communities, the author argues that there is a deep cultural commonality underlying the diversity of religious expression among the American middle classes. This commonality can be described in terms of religious individualism. But unlike previous accounts of religious individualism, this article emphasizes the ways in which it combines both “seeking” and “dwelling” and leads to both “progressive” and “orthodox” forms of religious expression.