Defining religious pluralism in America: A regional analysis

In any given time and place, religious pluralism reflects a set of cultural attitudes about the nature and role of religion in society. Prior to World War II, religious pluralism in the United States was conceived as a two-tiered system, with nondenominational Protestantism in the top tier and other legitimate religious groups-Catholics, Jews, Eastern Orthodox, Mormons-relegated to a seeend tier. Since the war, American society has experimented with several different models, each of which derives from an approach to religious pluralism rooted in a particular region of the country.