Beliefs- Secularisation Flashcards
Rationalisation- Weber
• Refers to the process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones.
Weber believed that Western cultures have undergone mass rationalisation.
• Sees this society as ‘disenchanted’ as all the religious mysticism is taken out and we are left without the influence of any supernatural powers and religious thinking.
Technological worldview- Bruce
• Argues that the growth of a technological worldview replaced the religious view completely as it provided logical explanations and arguments for religious influences.
• Therefore, the religious scope has declined dramatically as it is taken less seriously.
Structural differentiation- Parsons
• Defines structural differentiation as a process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society.
• Disengagement of religion is an outcome of structural differentiation, the functions of religion were passed to institutions like the state, it therefore became disconnected from wider society.
• e.g. the church lost influence over education, social welfare and the law.
• Privatisation has also become an outcome, religion is now kept within the private sphere of the home and family.
Social and cultural diversity- Wilson
• Decline of community is a result from moving from a pre-industrial society to an industrial one and a contribution to secularisation, he argues that when religion lost its hold over society, we became a more individualistic society.
• Social and geographical mobility caused by industrialisation has brought people from different backgrounds together.
• Diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles undermine religion.
AO3
❌ Aldridge points out that community doesn’t have to be concerned with a particular area: Religion can be source of identity which doesn’t have to be influenced by location.
Religious diversity in Britain- Berger
The sacred canopy was the shared set of beliefs that everyone held in the Middle ages, this gave greater plausibility to people’s beliefs as there would be no conflict or questions.
• With the protestant reformation, there was no longer an unchallenged monopoly of truth this then brought varied interpretations of what was the truth.
• Plausibility structure created the crisis of credibility for religion.
• Religious beliefs therefore became relative rather than absolute.
Declining church attendance in America
• Opinion polls found that a stable 40% of people attended church regularly in 1940, however Hadaway studied church attendance in Ohio and found that the claims of church attendance were 83% higher than the actual research estimates.
Religious diversity in America - Bruce
• Identifies a trend towards practical relativism among American Christians in how everyone is entitled to their own beliefs.
• In 1924 94% of churchgoers believed that ‘Christianity was the one true religion, in 1977 only 41% agreed.
Evaluation to secularisation
• Religion isn’t declining, just changing.
• Secularisation theory is one-sided (it doesn’t consider the religious revivals and the growth of new religions.
• Religion may have declined in Europe not globally.
• Religious diversity only causes an increase in choice not a decline in belief overall.
• Lyon criticises secularisation for assuming that religion is declining, he argues that we are actually in a period of re-enchantment with the growth of unconventional beliefs, practices and spirituality.
