Beliefs in Society: The Secularisation Debate

Question 1

What is secularisation?

Answer 1

The decline in institutional religion.

Question 2

1851 Census of Religious Worship in England and Wales

Answer 2

• Found that 40% of the adult population attended church.
• This dropped to 35% by the turn of the century, and 20% by 1950.

Question 3

How much of the adult population attended church in 2015?

Answer 3

5%

Question 4

2011 YouGov Poll

Answer 4

Found that 63% of the adult population had not attended a place of worship for religious reasons in the last year.

Question 5

British Attitudes Survey (2014)

Answer 5

Fount that 58% of the population had never attended religious services.

Question 6

Outline a statistic that may be used to evaluate declining church attendence as a measure of increased secularisation.

Answer 6

Of the 16% of people who define themselves as belonging to the Church of England, 52% never attend church services.

Question 7

In 1900 65% of all children were baptized, compared to

Answer 7

41% in 2005.

Question 8

The number of Catholic Baptisms today is under 1/2 of

Answer 8

those in 1964, and many baptisms are an entry ticket into a high achieveing school, rather than a sign of Christian commitment.

Question 9

In 1971 60% of weddings were in church, but in 2012

Answer 9

the proportion was only 30%.

Evaluation - Could be because more venues have wedding licenses, not because people are more or less religious.

Question 10

English Church Census (2006)

Answer 10

1. Shows that membership of large religious organisations such as the CofE and the Catholic Church has declined.
2. However membership of smaller organisations (Pentecostalism, Baptism) has stabalised and grown in some cases.

Question 11

How could you evaluate the findings of the English Church Census (2006)?

Answer 11

The growth of smaller Christian organisations can not compensate for the overall declining trend.

Question 12

Gill et al (1998) - Patterns and Trends

Answer 12

Reviewed almost 100 surveys which show a significant decline in belief in a personal God, Jesus as the son of God, and traditional teachings about the afterlife.

Question 13

During the 20th century, the number of clergy decreased from

Answer 13

45,000 to 34,000

Question 14

How does Wilson define secularisation?

Answer 14

The process whereby religious beliefs, practices, and institutions lose social significance.

Question 15

What does Bruce (2002), predict if current trends continue?

Answer 15

• The Methodist Church will fold around 2030.
• The Church of England will essentially be a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property.

Question 16

Summarise the evidence which can be used to support the theory of secularisation:

Answer 16

1. Church attendence has decreased
2. Fewer people are defining themselves as religious
3. Fewer people attend collective worship
4. The amount of people dedicating their lives to religious office has decreased.

Question 17

Give a strength of the evidence used to support secularisation theory.

Answer 17

Its multi-facceted

Question 18

Evaluate patterns and trends used to support secularisation theory

Answer 18

1. Two dimensional/Crude - Neglects people who are ‘on the fence’, and undecided.
2. Use of official statistics and surveys poses methodological problems.
3. Church attendence doesnt convey religiosity - society has become more individualised which explains why collective worship has decreased.
4. Just because people arent members of a particular organisation, doesn’t mean they are less religious.

Question 19

Explain why church attendence and membership figures can be questioned in terms of their** validity and reliability. **

Answer 19

• Statistics could be distorted by those who produce them.
• Different organisations use different criteria to calculate membership.

Question 20

Give an example of how different organisations use different criteria to calculate church membership.

Answer 20

The Catholic church and the CofE count the number of people who have been baptised and confirmed, whereas the Church of Wales count those who attend easter communion.

Question 21

Give an example of how statistics on church attendence could be distorted by those who produce them

Answer 21

1. Catholic figures are underestimated to reduce fees paid to central church authoroties.
2. Anglican figures are overestimated to reduce the risk of closure for churches with a small congregation.

Question 22

Why does Martin (1969) criticise theories of secularisation?

Answer 22

• Argues many theories of secularisation are based on an unrealistic notion od a ‘golden age of religious commitment’.
• States that higher levels of church attendence asscoiated with Victorian England were influenced by non-religious factors like social and cultural expectations.

Question 23

Who criticised theories of secularisation for being based on an unrealistic notion of the golden age of religious commitment?

Answer 23

Martin (1969)

Question 24

Explain why the decline in church attendence can be interpreted in different ways

Answer 24

• Critics argue quantifying religiosity is not straightforwardly possible and reflects positivistic sociology.
• Statistics on religious participation may only be tenuously linked to religiosity
• Some argue that in postmodern society there has simply been a change in the way religion is practiced.
• Religion has merely de-institutionalised itself and become more individual, declining church attendance cannot be seen a measure of belief.

Question 25

How does Davie (1991) evaluate the patterns and trends used in Secularisation theory?

Answer 25

found that despite declining church attendence 62% of people believe in God. Thus, statistics on religious participation may only be tenuously linked.

Question 26

How does Glasner (1977) criticise Wilson?

Answer 26

Argues sociologists such as Wilson are influenced by a traditional view of religion as church orientated.

Question 27

Why can a decline in institutional religion not be taken as indicative of a decline in religious belief, according to Bellah (1984)?

Answer 27

Because a process of individuation has taken place which represented a shift away from collective worship to privatised religion.

Question 28

Bellah (1984) - Individualisation

Answer 28

A process of individualisation has taken place which represents a shift away from collective worship to privatised religion.

Question 29

Brierley (1991) - De-institutionalisation

Answer 29

• Observes that the religious scene has changes, rather than society becoming more secular.
• He claims that the population has moved away from religious participation in institutional religion, but at the same time beliefs have been maintained.
• The decline in institutional religion is not necessarily indicative of a decline in religious belief and commitment.

Question 30

Why is the decline in institutional religions not necessarily indicative of a decline in religious belief (Brierley)?

Answer 30

The population has moved away from religious participation in institutional religion, but at the same time beliefs have been maintained.

Question 31

Outline and explain two ways in which religion could be said to have declined in it’s importance.

Answer 31

1. Decline in Baptisms: Less people are affiliated with a religion from birth, and those who do get baptised do so for non-religious reasons such as wanting to attend Catholic schools.
2. Decline in Church membership: English Church Census (2006) found membership of large religious organisations has declined.

Question 32

Outline and explain two reasons why we should be cautious in our interpretation of statistical data that shows a decline in religion

Answer 32

1. Methodological problems: Figures can be questioned in terms of their validity and reliability, Churches may under or overestimate attendence.
2. Ignores changes in religious practice: In postmodern society people worship in diverse ways, decline in religious institutions does not mean a decline in belief.

Question 33

What did the 2021 Census show?

Answer 33

For the first time in a census of Englan and Wales, fewer than half the population have described themselves as Christian.

Question 34

What is the Muslim population in England according to the 2021 census?

Answer 34

3.9 million which represented a 43% rise.

Question 35

Areas with a higher proprotion of people from ethnic minorities

Answer 35

are also more religious.

Question 36

What did the 2021 cenusu reveal about Leicster and Birmingham?

Answer 36

They have become the first UK cities with “minority majorities”.

Question 37

Suggest why there may be a disparity in religiosity between different areas?

Answer 37

The ONS (2021) cited differing patterns of ageing, fertility, morality and migration as possible reasons for the change in religious profile or certain counties.

Question 38

Those of “no religion”

Answer 38

have tripled since the millenium to 37%

Question 39

What does Historian Tom Holland claim?

Answer 39

That England remains a ‘Christian Country’ by virtue of its history and state institutions.

Question 40

Give an example of how state institutions are still partially religious.

Answer 40

Parliament opens with “prayers”.

Question 41

Summarise rationalisation and desacrilisation

Answer 41

• Scientific and rational explanations take precedence over religious faith and dogma.
• Includes the development of anti-emotional logic and the rise of scientific knowledge and explanations.

Question 42

Summarise disengagement and differentiation

Answer 42

• Where the established church looses its prominence, power, significance , and place in relation to the state.
• Religion is divorced from the state
• Other social institutions take over the functions of the church (Differentiation)

Question 43

Summarise social and cultural diveristy

Answer 43

• Diverse beliefs, values, and lifestyles become more characteristic of late modern industralised society, leading to a decline in religious belief and practice.
• Greater diversity undermines the credibility of individual religions.

Question 44

Summarise religious diversity and pluralism

Answer 44

• Where one religion no longer has a monopoly of power and there is greater religious competition and plurality.
• Undermining of religion is the consequence of living in a multi-faith society.

Question 45

Explain what is meant by the term rationalisation?

Answer 45

Where scientific and rational explanations take precedecne over religious ones. Therefore, people increasingly understand and expalin the world in secular terms.

Question 46

Explain **Weber’s **‘Descarilisation Thesis’.

Answer 46

• He claimed modern society is characterised by rationalisation and intellectualisation which leads to disenchantment of the world.
• Rational action is a rejection of the guidlines put forward by emotion, tradition or religion.
• Thus, Human understanding has become secularised.

Question 47

Who put forward the ‘Descarilisation Thesis’?

Answer 47

Max Weber

Question 48

What did Weber mean by ‘the disenchantment of the world’?

Answer 48

The world is no longer charged with mystery and magic, the supernatural has been eroded from society and the meanings and motives taht direct action are rational and calculated ones.

Question 49

What is rational action?

Answer 49

• A rejection of the guidelines provided by emotion, tradition or religion.
• The cold, delibirate reason of human intellect.

Question 50

What does **Wilson (1966) **argue in ‘Religion in a secular society’?

Answer 50

• That people act less in response to religious motivation and assess the world in empirical and rational terms.
• The social significance of religion, in all of its forms, has declined.
• Religious ideas, concoiusness and explanations no longer inhabit the human mind and dictate human action.
• Religious practices no longer take up the time of the individual.

Question 51

Which factors encouraged the emergence and development of rational thinking?

Answer 51

1. Protestantism
2. Greater knowledge of the physical and social world
3. Development of rational ideologies and organisations
4. The rational organisation of society

Question 52

How has the organistaion of society encouraged a rational world view?

Answer 52

• Peoples lives are structured in a more organised and beurocratic way - religion no longer dictates the working week (shops used to be closed on sundays). Towns and cities are no longer built around a church in their centre.
• Removes religion from peoples everyday lives and encourages rational thought.

Question 53

How has the development of certain ideologies and organisations to solve problems encouraged a rational world view?

Answer 53

• They produce practical and observable results rather than religious solutions, such as the promise of justice and reward in the afterlife.
• Solve societal problems through action, rather than prayer alone.

Question 54

Give examples of rational ideologies and organisations whcih attempt to solve problems.

Answer 54

• WHO
• Modern Medicine
• The NHS
• IMF
• Welfare System

Question 55

Why does Wilson argue that a rational world view is the enemy of religion?

Answer 55

• Because a rational world view is based on the testing of arguments and beliefs by rational procedures, and assesing the truth by means of factors which can be quantified and objectively measured.
• By contrast, religion being based on faith is non-rational and its claims to truth cannot be tested by rational procedures.

Question 56

What does Berger (1970) mean by a ‘secularisation of conciousness’?

Answer 56

• The majority of people in Western society increasingly look upon the world and their own lives withou the benefit of religious interpretations.
• Rationalisation is a key variable of a secular society, becuase a rational worldview is a rejection of faith (the basis of religion).
• We no longer percieve the world around a central religious truth.

Question 57

Give an example which proves the growth of a technological worldview.

Answer 57

When a plane crashes, we are unlikely to see it as the work of evil spirits or God’s punishment of the wicked, we look to scientific and technological explanations, such as a system failure.

Question 58

Bruce (2011) - Growth of a technological world view

Answer 58

• The growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations.
• This leaves little room for religious arguments, which can only survive in areas where technology is least effective.

Question 59

Give an example of religion being used in areas where technology is least effective.

Answer 59

People pray for help if they are suffering from an illness for which scientific medicine has no cure.

Question 60

What example does Bruce (2011) use to argue that religion is only used when technology is not effective?

Answer 60

• Only when we have tried every cure for cancer, we pray.
• When we have revised for our exams, we pray - we do not pray instead of studying.
• Even the most commited believers recognise that a research programme is more likely than a mass prayer to produce a cure for AIDS.

Question 61

What does Bruce (2011) mean when he claims that science has undermined religion?

Answer 61

• Scientific explanations negate the need for religious answers to lifes problems.
• Religion is secondary to science as an explanation of the world.
• Religion is only needed as an explanation when science has failed.

Question 62

What conclusion did Bruce reach?

Answer 62

• Although scientific explanations do not challenge religious explanations directly, they have greatly reduced the scope for supernatural arguments.
• Scientific knowledge does not in itself make more people atheists, but the worldview it encourages results in people taking religion less seriously.

Question 63

Evaluate the ‘Descarilisation thesis’.

Answer 63

• The increasing number of New Age movements is a genuine attempt to remystify the world.
• Heelas (1996) points out that new age beliefs are concerned with spiritual issues that impact on everyday life in wide ranging ways.

Question 64

According to Stark and Bainbridge (1985), why is secularisation a self limiting process?

Answer 64

• Becuase it always generates religious revival.
• Commentators who support the theory of secularisation typically focus their attention too narrowly on the decline of established religion.
• Which ignores the constant cycle of birth of NRM and NAM.

Question 65

Who argued secularisation is a self-limiting process?

Answer 65

Stark and Bainbridge (1985)

Question 66

Hay et al (1987)

Answer 66

Found almost half the adult population in Britain have had a ‘religious or transcendental’ experience.

Question 67

What did Marx argue about secularisation?

Answer 67

• That industrial cpaitalism would set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to its own downfall.
• It a communist society there would then be no oppression or pain, so no need for religion.

Question 68

What did Weber argue about secularisation?

Answer 68

• That rationalisation would lead to the gradual erosion of religious influence.
• Emphasis would be placed on the rational and logical pursuit of goals, rather than tradition, ritual, or religion.

Question 69

What did Comte argue about human history?

Answer 69

That it passed through three stages, each characterised by a different set of intellectual beliefs:
1. Theological
2. Metaphysical
3. Positive

Question 70

What was the ‘theological stage’ of human history according to Comte?

Answer 70

When religious and supersticious beliefs dominated.

Question 71

What was the ‘Metaphysical Stage’ of human history according to Comte?

Answer 71

When philosophy became more important. Philosophers rather than religious leaders were seen as the key intellectuals.

Question 72

What is the ‘Positive stage’ of human history according to Comte?

Answer 72

When religious beliefs would dissapear entirely, and science alone would dominate human thinking and direct human behaviour.

Question 73

What did the founding fathers of sociology (Comte, Marx, Weber, Durkheim) all anticipate about religion?

Answer 73

• That religion would be undermined by the condition of modernity.
• Modern societies and the rationalised logic characteristic of them are viewed as being incompatible with the retention of religions central role.

Question 74

What did **Durkheim **argue about secularisation?

Answer 74

• Although he claimed there was something eternal about religion, he anticipated it would still decline in its social significance.
• Predicted religion would retain importance in simple societies, but in larger industrial society it would loose its intigrating force.
• Social solidarity would be achieved by education and the media, not religion.

Question 75

How has the media replaced the functions of religion?

Answer 75

• By providing moral guidelines and defining the parameters of right and wrong.
• Through the provision of knowledge
• Creating standards against which behaviour is checked.

Question 76

How does Wilson (1966) define secularisation?

Answer 76

The process whereby religious thinking, practice, and institutions lose social significance.

Question 77

What problem is central to the secularisation debate?

Answer 77

• Different sociologists study religiosity in different ways, which impacts on how they define and measure secularisation.
• The more broadly religiosity is defined, the less likely it is to be seen in decline.

Question 78

Hanson (1997)

Answer 78

Argues that definitional diversity can lead to misunderstanding and adds to the complexity of the debate on secularisation.

Question 79

What is differentiation?

Answer 79

• Changes in society have led to the church loosing its former roles and functions.
• The decline of community also undermines religion becuase it can no longer serve as a focal point of activity.
• Where religion once pervaded every aspect of life, it has increasingly become regulated to the private sphere of the indivdual.

Question 80

Who put forward the idea of structural differentiation?

Answer 80

Parsons (1951)

Question 81

What does Bruce argue about differentiation?

Answer 81

• Fundemental chnages in society have led to the church and institutional religion loosing many of its functions.
• The decline of the community undermines religion because it can no longer serve as a focal point of activity.
• People are unlikely to turn to a priest of vicar for practical or emotional support, or the church for education, welfare, and knowledge.
• Where religion once pervaded every aspect of life, it has increasingly been relegated to the private sphere of the indivdual and the family.

Question 82

Outline some examples of the social roles historically held by the church

Answer 82

• Educational provision
• Emotional council
• Transmission of knowledge
• Moral guidance

Question 83

Expalin how the church was historically a focal point?

Answer 83

Towns were built around churches. E.g. Hexam or Corbridge, the church is in the town centre.

Question 84

What does structural differentiation lead to?

Answer 84

The disengagement of religion, where religion becomes disconnected from wider society.

Question 85

What did **Parsons (1951) **argue despite sturtucral differentiation?

Answer 85

• That the church has become more specialised and better equiped in the functions it retains.
• Religious beliefs thus still give meaning and significance to life .
• Religious beliefs and values have become increasingly generalised.

Question 86

Give examples to support Parsons theory of the generalisation of religious values

Answer 86

1. In America religious ideas have become the basis for more general social values. For example, gun laws and defence theories reflect the old testament (eye for an eye).
2. In relation to education in England and Wales, faith schools gain governmental support.

Question 87

What is meant by the disengagement of religion?

Answer 87

• The church used to be engaged and intergrated with the state and was an extreemely powerful and influential institution in social, cultural, political, and economic processes.
• However, the church has lost its prominence and influence on public life.

Question 88

Martin (1969) - Disengagement

Answer 88

Argues that compared to its role in medieval Europe, the church is contemporary western society has undergone a process of disengagement, is now distant from the state and has become privatised.

Question 89

Wilson (1977) - Symbolic rites of passage

Answer 89

• Claimed the church has ceased to preside over national life.
• Its involvement in wider society is limited to symbolic rites of passage: ‘hatching, matching, and dispatching’.
• The church simply fulfills a ceremonial function.

Question 90

What are the positive functions of disengagement according to Martin (1969)?

Answer 90

Disengagement allows the church to become ‘purer’ as it can concentrate on religious and spiritual matters uninfluenced by secular concerns.

Question 91

How does the configuration of the House of Lords go against theories of secularisation?

Answer 91

26 Church of England Bishops sit in the House of Lords where they have some influence on legislation.

Question 92

How is the decline of community linked to secularisation?

Answer 92

• Move from pre-industrial to industrial society, corresponds to the decline in community.
• Urbanisation causes the population to shift from rural to urban areas.
• Cities are a more depersonalised fractured environment.
• Religion has lost its basis in stable local communities.

Question 93

How is industrialisation linked to secularisation?

Answer 93

• It has undermined the consensus of religious beliefs and practices that held small, rural communities together.
• Close-knit rural communities gave way to large loose-knit urban communities with diverse beliefs and values.
• Social and geographical mobility created heterogenity, undermining religion.

Question 94

How is diversity of occupations, cultutres and lifestyles linked to secularisation?

Answer 94

• The plausability and credibility of religious beliefs are undermined by alternatives.
• Religion is disrupted by greater individualism becuase it depends on the existance of a practicing community.
• In the absence of a functional day-to-day community of worshipping believers, both belief and practice tend to decline.

Question 95

Evaluate the view a decline in community has led to secularisation, according to Alridge (2013)

Answer 95

• A community does not have to be in a particular area.
• Religion can be a source of identity of a world wide scale.
• Some religious communities are imagined communities that interact through the use of global media.
• Pentecostal groups often flourish in ‘impersonal’ urbban areas.

Question 96

How does Wilson explain the link between secularisation and the decline of community?

Answer 96

In pre-industrial communities, shared values were expressed through collective rituals that integrated individuals and regulated their behaviour

Yet as reigion has lost its basis in stable local communities, its lost its hold over individuals.

Question 97

How does Bruce explain the link between secularisation and industrialisation?

Answer 97

Industrialisation undermined the consensus of religious beliefs that held small rural communities together.

Question 98

How does the diversity of occupations, cultures, and lifestyles lead to secularisation according to Bruce?

Answer 98

The plausaility and credibility of singular religious beliefs is undermined by the sheer volume and scope of alternatives.

Question 99

Berger (1969)

Answer 99

Identifies the trend torwards religious pluralism and diversity- where there are many different religious interpretations and organisations - as a cause of secularisaion.

Question 100

Explain what Berger means by ‘sacred canopy’?

Answer 100

The overarching belief system shared by all, dictated by the church.

Question 101

How can the growth in relgious pluralism be seen to fragment religious influence?

Answer 101

• Singular religions no longer have a monopoly over the truth.
• Encourages people to question the credibility of religion, due to the amount of competing beliefs.
• Undermines the previously held sacred canopy.
• People recognise there is choice, encourages the emergence of different religious tribes.

Question 102

What does Wilson mean when he states ‘NRMs are likely to be no more than transient and volatile gestures of defiance in the face of a secular society’?

Answer 102

• Sects are short lived because people cannot maintain the often extreeme beliefs they hold.
• Sects are schismatic and world-rejecting sects are unlikely to be able to influence society.
• New Religious Movements are quick tempered and temporary, beliefs die out when they arent transferred onto the second-generation.
• Sects are often reliant on a charismatic leader.

Question 103

What does Wilson mean when he states sects are ‘the last outpost of religion where religious beliefs and values have little consequence’?

Answer 103

• People latch on to them when religion begins to die out, which is a symptom of secularisation in of itself.
• They are seen as minority fringe groups which seem irrelevant to society.
• Sects die out fast, they have a quick turn-over of believers.

Question 104

Explain the structure of religion in the Middle Ages (Berger)

Answer 104

• The Catholic Church held an absolute monopoly.
• Everyone lived under a singular sacred canopy, which gave these beliefs greater plausability.
• The Church’s version of the truth was unquestioned.

Question 105

Explain the structure of religion post-reformation (Berger)

Answer 105

• When the Protestant church broke away from the Catholic church, in the 16th century, the monopoly of one belief system was undermined.
• Since then, the number and variety of religious organisations has continued to grow.

Question 106

When was the monopoly of a singular belief system first undermined?

Answer 106

The Protestant Reformation

Question 107

How has religious diversity created a plurality of life worlds?

Answer 107

• With the arrival of religious diversity, no church can claim an un challenged monopoly of the truth.
• Society is no longer unified under a single sacred canopy, provided by one church.
• Religious diversity creates a plurality of life worlds, where peoples perceptions of the world vary and there are different interpretations of the truth.

Question 108

Explain what Berger means by a ‘crisis of credibility’ for religion

Answer 108

• Diversity undermines religion’s plausability structure, as when there are alternative versions of religion to choose between, people are likely to question all of them.
• This erodes the absolute certsinties of traditional religion.
• Religious beliefs become relatibe rather than absolute.

Question 109

Explain how the erosion of absolutism causes secularisation, according to Berger

Answer 109

The erosion of absolutism, occurs due to the increased plularity of religious beliefs.

This reminds people that their beliefs are their personal preference which undermines religious certainty, causing some to opt out of religion altogether.

Question 110

What does Bruce see as the most important cause of secularisation, and why?

Answer 110

The trend torwards religious diversity, because:

‘It is difficult to live in a world that treats as equally valid a large number of incompatible beliefs, without coming to suppose that there is no one truth’.

Question 111

Which two counter trends which supposedly go against secularisation theory does Bruce identify?

Answer 111

1. Cultural Defence
2. Cultural transition

Question 112

What is cultural defence?

Answer 112

• Where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local, or group identity in a struggle against an external force such as a hostile foreign power.
• The religious identity of communities can lead to the development of a new loyalty, as a way of asserting ethnic or national pride.

Question 113

What is cultural transition?

Answer 113

• Where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different country/culture.
• Religion thus aquired enhanced importance because it assists people in the shift from one society to another.

Question 114

How does Bruce analyse the two counter-trends of Cultural defence and Cultural Transition?

Answer 114

• He argues that in both cases it is their group identity that is important, rather than their religiosity.
• Religion only remains strong because of its social importance.
• These examples do not disprove secularisation, but show that religion is most likely to survive where it performs functions other than relation to the supernatural.

Question 115

What does **Bruce **conclude about cultural defence and cultural transition?

Answer 115

Cultural defense and cultural transition may keep religion relevant but they will not create a religious society out of a secular one.

Question 116

How does the growth of NRMs contribute to secularisation?

Answer 116

• The continued proliferation of sects and cults contributes to religious pluralism.
• They fragment institutional religion, and weaken the hold of religion over society.
• Religion no longer provides a ‘shared universe of meaning’.
• Sects are seen as the last refuge of the supernatural in a secular society.

Question 117

Who described sects as ‘the last refuge of the supernatural in a secular society’?

Answer 117

Berger

Question 118

Who argued sects are a feature of:

‘societies experiencing secularisation and they may be a response to. a situation in which religious values have lost social pre-eminence’?

Answer 118

Wilson (1982)

Question 119

Why does Wilson dismiss the growth of NRMs?

Answer 119

• He claims they do not contribute torwards the culture by which society lives.
• They do nothing to halt the continuing process of secularisation and are ‘no more than transient and volatile gestures of defiance.
• Claims sects provide a ‘society for dropouts’.

Question 120

Who said sects are ‘no more than transient and volatile gestures of defiance’, in the face of a secular society?

Answer 120

Wilson (1982)

Question 121

How does Wilson see sects?

Answer 121

As the last outposts of religion in societies where religious beliefs and values have little consequence.

Question 122

How do Berger and Luckmann (1969) expalin NRMs?

Answer 122

Argue the emergence of NRMs proves, religion no longer provides a ‘shared universe of meaning’.

Question 123

How do Stark and Bainbridge (1985) criticise the growth of NRMs as evidence of secularisation?

Answer 123

They accept the idea that NRMs thrive when conventional religions are weak.

However they deny that secularisation has taken place, arguing the existance and growth of sects and cults prevents secularisation moving far.

Question 124

Wallis (1984) - NRMs

Answer 124

Argues that NRMs involve only a very small proportion of the population and even then often only for brief periods of time.

Question 125

What does Bruce suggest about the recent growth in NRMs?

Answer 125

People who chant in Sokia Gakki or meditate in Transcendental Meditation, attend religious seminars or weekend retreats, carry on their lives as normal and there is no consequence for society.

Question 126

Is there a consensus regarding religious pluralism as evidence for secularisation?

Answer 126

No, some see it as the dilution of religion, whereas others see it as proof that religion can be maintained futher.

Question 127

Outline the key criticisms of secularisation theory

Answer 127

1. Religion is not declining it is simply changing its form.
2. Secularisation is one sided, focusing on decline and ignoring religious revival.
3. Secularisation is not universal.
4. The past was not a ‘golden age’ of faith.
5. Religious diversity may actually increase participation, by offering increased choice.