Die Ausbildung religiöser Mehrfachzugehörigkeit als eine Form von Konversion?

The contribution deals with multi-religious identities and asks whether the development of such identity-formations may be regarded as conversion. In the first part different phenomena of multiple-religious belonging are sketched: more or less reflected, culturally conditioned or due to biographical circumstances (for example as a result of a bi-religious marriage), as a form of postmodern life-style or as a consequence of deep commitment. In the second part I delineate some conceptual approaches to interpret those identity formations, mainly those of Perry Schmidt-Leukel und Ulrich Beck. The discussion of those concepts leads to a focus on such multiple religious identities not formed by partial integration of elements of the one religious tradition into the system of the other and not by creating a synthesis of both, but – idealtypically – by “inhabiting” both as fully as possible. Can such a double-belonging become considered as conversion? It is that question that the third part deals with. If “conversion” is defined not primarily as a change of religious belonging but as a transformation of the religious identity of a person, then we can apply this term on the emergence of such an identity-formation (not on the identity-formation as such). The fourth part asks for preconditions for creating multi-religious identities on the side of the involved religious traditions. On the one hand, the more a tradition is understood and practiced in an orthodox way the less their representatives will accept a combination with another tradition. Types of religions that tend to mysticism, on the other hand, are more open for such a possibility. As an example I present the spiritual pilgrimage of Frithjof Schuon, a Christian who converted to Sufism – after he had read the Bhagavadgîta – without ceasing to be a Christian. In the fifth part of the article I ask from the standpoint of a Christian Systematic Theologian how the phenomenon of a religious osmosis relates to basic conviction of Christian faith