Transformations in new immigrant religions and their global implications

Immigrant religious communities in the United Stares are undergoing profoun d transformations. Three processes of change occurring in new immigrant rel igions are described and analyzed; (1) adopting the congregational form in organizational structure and ritual, (2) returning to theological foundatio ns, and (3) reaching beyond traditional ethnic and religious boundaries to include other peoples. These changes support the "new paradigm" in the soci ology of religion that refutes secularizarion theories: Internal and extern al religious pluralism, instead of leading to the decline of religion, enco urages institutional and theological transformations that energize and revi talize religions. Moreover, these changes are not merely attributable to Am ericanization. Rather, these changes have transnational implications for gl obal religious systems-implications that are facilitated by the material an d organizational resources that new U.S. immigrants possess.