Booklet 2 - Religious Organisations And Participation Flashcards
What is Troeltsch’s typology based on?
- Organisational structure
- Relationship with wider society
- Commitment required from members
- Attitude to different religious groups
Church organisation structure
Troelsch and Weber
- Large organisations
- Often have millions of members
- Run by an organised, bureaucratic hierarchy of professional paid clergy
- Clear lines of seniority within clergy
- Often wealthy
- Leaders have power within wider society
- Worship tends to be formal and ritualised
Troeltsch and Weber
Church attitudes to wider society
- World-accommodating.
-Conservative. - Likely to accept the dominant norms and values of society.
- Some churches have clear links to the state and are considered an ‘official religion’ or state religion.
Example of a state religion
Anglican Church in the UK where the sovereign is head of state and head of the church and bishops sit in the house of lords.
Troelsch and Weber
Membership requirements - churches
- Universalist and inclusive.
- Many born into it and assumed to be a member unless they opt out.
- Integrated with political and economic structures accepting the social environment they live in.
Troelsch and Weber
Churches attitudes to other religions
- Churches can be intolerant of other religious groups as most claim a monopoly of truth.
- Clearly seen in Roman Catholic Church who work with other faiths on social justice projects however maintain the ‘one true church’ claim.
Toelsch and Weber
Church membership demographics
- Can generally fit around a normal, working life so accessible to a range of people from social backgrounds.
- Churches tend to be more attractive to people on higher incomes who are interested in keeping society as it is and resisting social change.
Niebhur
Denominations organisational structure
- Less exclusive than a sect but don’t appeal to the whole of society like a church.
- Hierarchy of paid officials and a bureaucratic structure but some degree of democratic participation.
Niebhur
Denomination attitude to wider society
- World accomodating
- Broadly accepting societys values but usually not linked to the state.
- Usually more concerned with spiritual behaviour and everyday morality.
- Accept and integrate with secular culture, living conventional lives outside their religious activities.
- May impose minor restrictions such as forbidding alcohol.
Niebhur
Denominations attitudes to other religions
- Tolerant
- Don’t claim a monopoly of truth
- See themselves as one denomination among many.
Examples of denominations
Pentecostalism
Methodism
Lutheran Church
Wilson and Troelstch
Sects organisational structure
- small exclusive group.
- No hierarchy in terms of aid officials and structure.
- More egaliatrian power structure - under the control of a single charismatic leader.
- Some are short lived e.g. when the leader dies so does the sect.
Wilson and Troelstch
Sect attitudes to wider society
- World rejecting.
- often iewed as radical groups in opposition to the wider world.
- Dominant norms and values replaced with alternative beliefs and practice.
- Schiasmatic so viewed as radical in opposition to the wider world.
Wilson and Troelstch
Sect membership requirments
- Strict entry requirmets expecting a high evel of commitment.
- Often expected to change their lifestyle and break with conventional ife becoming insular.
- Can engage with society when taking part in reruitment and fundraising.
- Tight social control of members with a risk of expulsion if people fail to conform.
Wilson and Troelstch
Sect membership demographics
- Small elitist, exclusive and close-knit memebrship
- Requires self-selection or family tradition
- Requires initiation ceremonies to show dedication.
- Often draw members from alienated minorities, the poor and marginalised communites who are looking for a sense of connection in opposition to the state.
Wilson and Troelstch
Sect attitudes to other religions
- Claim a monoply of the truth.
- Only members have access to the religious knowledge that offers the only true path to salvation.
- Usually intolerant of other religious groups and non-members.
Examples of sects
Peoples temple
Jehovas Witnesses
Mormonism
Stark and Bainbridge
Cult organisational structure
- Highly individualistic
- loosely structured
- usully small grouping around shared themes and interests but without a sharply defined belief system.
- Lack some features associated with religions e.g. buildings.
- Uually led by practitioners/ therapists who claim special knowledge acting as trainers who assist members into realising internal truths and forces.
Stark and bainbridge
Cult attitudes to wider society
- World affirming
- Offering special knowledge. insight and access t spiitual and supernatural powers within.
- Provide opportunity to be more succesful, secure and happy in society.
- No other wordly focus.
- No opposition or links with the state but some disapproval or persecution.
Stark and bainbridge
Cult membership requirments
- Little social cotrol over members.
- Highly individualistic.
- Selling services to individuals so that people can gain ‘salvation’ or other rewards.
- Little or further involvment with the cult once they have acquired their beiefs or techniques it offers.
Stark and bainbridge
Cult membership demographics
- Followers often have above average incomes.
- Feel something lacking in their otherwise succesful lives.
- Scientology has well known celebertities following and lthough they are secretive about their practices some sociologists argue the air of secrecy aims to incraese the ‘selling price’ of membership/ services.
Stark and bainbridge
Cults attitudes to other religions
- Usually tolerant f other organisations ad don’t demand strong commitment.
- Followers may belong to/ support and buy services from other religious organisations or cults.
Examples of cults
The human potential movement
Transcendental meditation movement
Scientology
Wallis
Two significnt characteristics of religious organisations
- How they see themselves
- How they are seen by wider society
What do churches and sects claim?
Claim that their interpretation of faith is the only correct one.
What do denominations and cults accept?
Accept that there can be many valid interpretations.
How are churches and denominations seen by wider society?
Seen as respectable and legitimate.
How are sects and cults seen by wider society?
Deviant
Criticisms of Troeltsch’s typology
- A lot of overlap and rigid definitions which makes categorisingorganisations difficult.
- Created based on Christian organisations so don’t work as well for different contexts.
- Outdated in postmodern society as they don’t consider an incraese in religious pluralism or the growing disconnect between religion and the state.
What does Bruce think the concept of Church is?
Outdated and should only be applied where a single religious organisation dmiates society and can reasoably clim to be adminestering to all members of society.
Bruce
Why are religions becoming absolute?
- Many Western societies are experiencing religious pluralism.
- This, alongside secularisation means organisations don’t expect/receive high levels of commitment.
- It becomes difficult for a state to lend exclusive support.
- Churches are historical phenomena
which will fade out of modern society.
Wallis
The old typology is no longer useful and so came up with 3 main types of religious movement.
Wallis
3 main types of religious movements
- World accomodting
- World affirming
- World rejecting
World accomodating
Accept social norms and members live similar lifestyles to other members of society.
Widely viewed as respectable/ tolerant institutions.
World affirming
Offer self-improvment within society.
Likely to live similar lives to members of society part from their interests which many regard as deviant, bizarre or obscure.
World rejecting
Opposition to the world and reject manydominant norms and replace them with alternative beliefs/ practices.
Members are likely to live their lives differently to members of society.
Criticisms of Wallis’ typology
- Not clear whether he is categorising according to the movement’s teaching/ doctrine or the attitude of individual believers.
- Ignores diversity of beliefs within each NRM.
- Stark and Bainbridge reject any typology instead the only useful criterion is the degree of conflict with wider society.
What are new religious movements?
Thoe that have emerged in the period since the end of the second world war and particularly since the 1960s.
What do many NRMs draw upon?
Traditional Chrisian or other religious faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism.
What do NRMs consist of?
A diverse range of groups which are often stereotyped and attacked by the media for their bizarre and sometimes harmful behaviour.
Barker
Features of NRMs
- Often concerned with spirituality and/ or supernatural
- Appeal to young adults who are converts.
- High turnover of members.
- Often led by a charismatic leader with ‘magnetic’ personality.
- Claim to hold the one and only correct truth and that they are the chosen ones.
- Frequently a sharp divide between us (good and godly group) and ‘them’ (the bad outsiders)
- Often face suspicion or histility from wider society.
- Many are short lived or transient due to heavy commitment.
What are world accommodating NRMs mainly?
Denominations or offshoots of mainstream Christian churches and denominations.
What are world accommodating NRMs more concerned with?
Rediscovering spirituality they thought had been lost and revitalising the spiritual life of their members.
What is religion seen as in NRMs?
A personal matter with members living conventional and conforming lives outside their religious activities.
What are examples of NRMs?
- Neo-Pentecostalism
- Charismatic Movement
These involve people speaking in tongues, faith healing and exorcism.
What does Wallis see world-affirming NRMs as?
Cults because they lack many features associated with traditional religious organisations.
What are many world affirming NRMs more like and what do they claim?
Therapy groups who claim to be able to provide the techniques and knowledge that will enable individuals to access spiritual powers within themselves to unlock their human potential, meet their personal needs and solve their problems.
What does Giddens suggest about the focus on the individual and individual expression and experience in cults?
The main features of a cult
What is there often in a cult?
Little discipline or commitment demanded of cult followers
How do most people who use the services of world affirming movements use them?
As consumers, buying services that are for sale to anyone who can afford them, with commercial marketing of courses, conferences, books, therapies etc.
What are the three types of cults Stark and Bainbridge identified?
- Audience cults
- Client cults
- Cultic movements
Audience cults
Provide little other than information, often consumed individually and spread through media e.g. horoscopes
Client cults
More organisation, often sell therapy and courses by practitioners e.g. spiritualism
Cultic movements
Wider range of activities, support and commitment e.g. Scientology
What are world rejecting NRMs?
Among the most controversial groups and often targeted by so called ‘de-programming groups’ who attack them for brainwashing.
What are world rejecting NRMs typically?
Hostile to wider society and often receive hostility from the media and sometimes from state authorities.
What did Beck find about sects?
They generally have a small membership and a relatively high turnover f members.
What are sects sometimes committed to?
Millenarianism which involves beliefs that some form of extra-worldly or supernatural intervention will change the world rapidly and suddenly which Aldridge calls ‘an imminent apocalyptic collapse of the existing world order and its replacement by a prefect new dispersion.’
What are sects sometimes referred to?
Doomsday cults.
What features do sects have according to Wilson
- Exist in a state of tension or conflict with wider society and frequently reject society and its values.
- Impose tests of merit on would-be members and members claim elite status due to ‘access’ to what they regard as the only route to salvation.
- Demand total and ongoing commitment form members over riding all other interests.
- Often led by a charismatic leader - a person with powerful, imposing and ‘magnetic’ personality that gives him/her power over other group members.
What does Stark and Bainbridge suggest religious organisations go through?
A sectarian cycle.
What is the stages of the sectarian cycle?
- Sects are formed from a schism in an existing organisation.
- World-rejecting sect is formed with initial fervour and commitment.
- Over time denominalisation occurs as the initial enthusiasm cools.
- A new denomination is established as the group becomes accepted in society.
What does Niebuhr suggest sects tend to be?
Short lived because they turn into denominations or disappear.
If a sect abandons its world-rejecting feature and lifestyle what can it become? What are two examples of this?
A respected denomination e.g. Quakers and Methodists.
How do world-rejecting sects sometimes end? What are 2 examples of this?
Sometimes end violently e.g. Peoples Temple or Heavens Gate
Who does Wilson point to as longstanding sects that haven’t become denominations?
Jehovah’s witnesses and the Amish.
What features do the Amish have that are different from typical sects?
No single charismatic leader and they reject features of society without being fully rejecting.
What does Wilson suggest the continuation of sects is based on?
Their views of the outiside world.
What are conversionist sects?
What are they most likely to become?
What is an example of a conversionist sect?
Groups that engage with the world to convert others so they reach salvation.
They are most likely to turn into denominations whilst maintaining sect-like features.
E.g. Salvation Army
What do introversionist sects believe?
What do these tend to remain as?
That salvation is found by withdrawal from society and becoming inward-looking.
Tend to remain as sects and maintain features.
What are Adventist/ revolutionary sects? WHat are 2 examples of these?
Groups with millenarian/ doomsday beliefs are more likely to end as there is no compromise/ tolerance of the outside world.
E.g. People’s temple or moonies.
Why are many sects short lived?
Commitment problems
Loss leader
Changes of circumstances
Religious diversity or postmodernism
What does Barker say about commitment problems in sects?
Discipline and rules people follow may be too constricting to be sustainable.
What does Niebuhr say about the commitment problems in sects?
Enthusiasm with which the sect starts with is difficult to maintain for future generations and so the sect will either die out losing its members or adapt and become mainstream in their beliefs.
How does loss leader cause sects to be short lived?
Sects founded and led by a single charismatic leader who attracted people into the sect may lose support or disappear once the leader dies or is imprisoned.
This can be due to mistrust of new leaders or general lack of motivation and direction.
How can changes of circumstances cause a sect to be short lived?
Reasons for joining ma no longer be relevant in future generations.
What does barker say about changes of circumstance which cause sects to be short lived?
As converts grow older the reasons that drove them into joining a sect diminishes and they begin to look for more normal lives.
How does religious diversity or postmodernism cause sects to be short lived?
Postmodernism society is characterised by fragmentation and wide diversity of religious/ spiritual beliefs.
Beliefs are a purely personal matter and people experiment without lasting commitment.
What does the ‘new age’ refer to?
A wide diversity of mind-body-spirit ideas, interests and therapies that became prominent in the 1980s.
What do NA ideas combine?
Religious and occult traditions from fairly conventional to the obscure and bizarre.
What are Heales two features that NAs consist of?
- Self spirituality - everyone becomes their own spiritual specialist.
- Detraditionalization - rejection of traditional external religions/ spiritual authority, replaced by self-spirituality.
What are the 5 features Bruce suggests New Age religions consist of?
- Emphasise on ‘freeing’ the self - seen as essentially good and divine.
- Connection the mind, body and spirit - all connected to each other and the environment/ supernatural.
- Self is the final authority - truth is what the person believes and what works for them.
- The global cafeteria - people can mix a range of beliefs, therapies and techniques drawn from across the world.
- Therapy - NA ideas are designed to be therapeutic to make you happier, healthier and successful.
What are 3 examples of New Age?
- Crystals
- UFOs
- Hypnosis
What are the ‘yes’ arguments for the question of whether there is a new age movement?
- Some element of organisational structure spread through the media and specialised shops.
- Similar focus identified by Heelas arguing NA movements bring a sense of cohesion which suggests an overarching movement.
What are the ‘no’ arguments for the question of whether there is a new age movement?
- Diverse range of beliefs, structure, leadership etc and so it can’t be regarded as a singular movement.
- Too individualised - people might network through workshops/ social media but there is little organisation beyond that.
What attracts people to NRMs and New Age?
- Disillusionment with society and institutions.
- Focus on wellness/ health
- Less commitment
- Escapism from regular life
- Links to environmentalism
- Pick n mix approach
- Individualised spirituality - person centred
What are the 4 ways Heelas claim New Age and modernity are linked in?
- Provides a source of identity in modern society where people play many different roles.
- Consumer culture creates a sense of dissatisfaction but NA offers an alternative way to perfection.
- Rapid social change disrupts established norms and values - NA provides a sense of certainty or truth in a time of ‘anomie’ - Durkheim
- Decline or organised religion means there are less traditional alternatives to NA beliefs e.g. in the USA the NA is strongest where a church is at its lowest in California.
What do Bruce and Heelas agree on?
That NA is a natural feature of modernity due to the individualistic nature of the NA.
How is the NA individualistic?
- Values are shared in ‘expressive professions’ linked to human potential.
- Softer versions of eastern religions which require very little commitment.
- They have a pick and mix style which reflects increasingly consumerist ethos in a capitalist society.
What are the explanations for the growth of NRMs and NA?
- Pragmatic/ practical reasons
- Secularisations and globalisation
- Vacuum of meaning and identity choice
- Social deprivation, marginality and theodicies of disprivilege
- Status frustration
- Anomie and social change
Pragmatic/ practical reasons
- NRM and NA offer the key to success.
- Heelas - world affirming NRMS and NA ideas appeal to more affluent, university educated, socially integrated and generally successful m/c groups.
- Seek techniques to recapture their inner selves.
- Have the money and services to pay for it.
- Wallis- offer knowledge, techniques and therapies that lessen people unlock spiritual powers within, helping them reduce stress and anxiety at work, find a career and financial success and a happier personal and spiritual life.
- Offer a sense of escape.
- Barkers study of the Moonies argued the sect offered a substitute family providing support and comfort.
Secularisation and globalisation
- Weber - growing disenchantment with the world.
- Traditional churches and denominations have watered down beliefs to accommodate a more secular world, become more worldly, less spiritual and lack firm beliefs and commitment.
- Giddens - people feel comfort and community in similar, less impersonal NRM.
- Bruce - NA movements are a consequence of growing individualisation in modernity.
- Traditional religions and sects appeal to people seeking spirituality and meaningful commitment whilst NA movements attract those turned off by mainstream religion and provide refuge.
- Baudrillard - media saturated society - people can pick and choose beliefs.
Vacuum of meaning and identity choice
- Lyotard - loss of faith in metanarratives and traditional sources of authority.
- People have become disillusioned with the churches failure to meet spiritual needs.
- Bauman - crisis of meaning in postmodernism society.
- Heelas - rise of NA ideas is part of a spiritual revolution providing a means for individuals to fill the vacuum of meaning left by the decline of traditional religions and lack of spirituality and so joining sects and cults may provide new sources of meaning and purpose.
- Drane - appeal to people as they have power to find truth and meaning within themselves.
- Postmodernists suggest traditional sources of identity have become more fragmented in contemporary societies.
- People form their own identities through consumer culture so joining a sect/cult may meet their own personal needs ad individual choice in terms of identity formation and lifestyle choices.
Social deprivation, marginality and theodicies of dis privilege
- Wilson - variety of factors lead to marginalisation - economic deprivation or because people are in trouble, lonely, have personal/ family problems or are disillusioned/ alienated from wider society.
- Weber- religious sects appeal by providing a theodicy of disprivledge - religious explanation and justification for social marginalisation.
- Traditional Marxist theories suggest sects turn into social deprivation and poverty into a virtuous test of faith.
- World rejecting NRMS act as compensators of marginality.
- Pentecostalist sects among African Carribeans in the UK/ Jehovah Witnesses or Branch Davidans provide access to close knit groups.
- Wallis- well educated m/c youths attracted because they felt marginalised and disillusioned.
Status frustration
- Wallis suggests status frustration may explain why NRM are most likely to appeal to young people as membership can provide support for identity and status independent of school, college or family which allows the to overcome their sense of status frustration.
- Barker - young adults lack responsibilities which gives them time and freedom to get involved with these movements.
- BArker and Wallis - World rejecting groups appeal to unattached young people and joint together in supportive community that bring them companionship and independence.
- Wallis - small proportion of the population involved and often from belief period during the transition to adulthood.
Anomie and social change
- WIlson - periods of rapid social change provide fertile ground for sects (anomie - Durkheim).
- Sects/ cults may provide solutions to uncertainty providing clearly defined belief systems and close knit supportive social groups which bring a sense of certainty.
- Wilson - the rise of Methodism was a response to rapid social change and insecurity of life in new industrial towns.
- Glock and Stark - sects emerge as a form of religious/ social protest as many embody elements of protest against existing society.
- E.g. NAtion of Islam in the USA or Pentocostal sects.
Which gender remains the biggest consumers of religion?
Women despite evidence and claims of religion being patriarchal. This is seen to be true across all faiths and religious organisations. The only exception = Islam which shows men having a greater commitment and involvement than women.
If the UK trends of loss of men from Christian churches continues what will happen by 2028?
Men will have disappeared from the church.
What does Davie note that there is in terms of religious practice, belief, self-identification, private prayer and many other aspects of religiosity?
Gender differences.
According to the British Social Attitudes survey (2018) what do more women say they have compared to men?
A religion - 54% women compared to 41% men.
What does Brierley say about church attendance?
More women attend church regularly - outnumber men by 500,000.
What did the British Attitudes Survey 2008 find more women said compared to men?
More women (38% vs 26%) said religion is important to them and more women (40% vs 28%) describe themselves as ‘spiritual.’
What did Voas find more men to be?
Atheist (54%) or agnostic than women (34%) and men are 2x as likely to say there is no after life.
what did Ferguson and Hussey find in all major faiths in the UK except Sikhism?
women are more likely to practice their religion.
What do Miller and Hoffman say women express greater of?
Interest in religion and have a stronger personal commitment to it.
What reason do Miller and Hoffman point to for differences of religiosity?
Risk-taking attitudes.
Atheists risk condemnation if religion is right - men are less risk-averse than women and so more likely to risk not being religious.
What do Miller and Hoffman suggest gender socialisation means?
Females are brought up to be more submissive, passive, obedient and nurturing than males and more involved with feelings, cooperation and caring.
What reason do Halman and Draulans give for increased participation of women in religion?
Tradition role give women a greater focus on family and so are more likely to guide their children’s moral development potentially using religious belies.
Women are also concerned with the ‘ultimate’ welfare of their family beyond their material needs - Greely.
What reason does Bruce suggest for women’s increased participation in religion?
Women’s socialisation fuses on nurturing, making them less confrontational, less goal-orientated, more cooperative, calm and caring and therefore they are drawn to mainstream organisations.
What did Walter and Davie suggest the reason for women’s increased participation in religion is?
Women are more exposed to ups and downs and changes of life due to their biological involvement in childbirth and through greater participation in caring at home and work.
Davie suggests this and women being socialised into caring roles gives women a closer association with birth and death than men have making them more aware of the vulnerability of human life and more attuned ti the spiritual dimensions of human existence.
What does Bruce argue women’s religiosity is a result of?
Their historically owner levels of involvement in paid work which means women had more time to devote to religious practices and less time under the influence of secularisation and rationalism.
What has gradual secularisation done?
Driven religion out of the male dominated public sphere of work, confining it to the private sphere of family and personal life which is more closely associated with women.
Evaluation of the idea that religion was driven away from the male dominated public sphere of work?
By the 1960s many women had taken secular masculinised roles in the public sphere of paid work and this led to what Browne called ‘the decline of female piety’ - women were also withdrawing from religion.
What did the 2023 Working Futures survey show?
That women dominated professions that involved caring/ nurturing which might make religion appear more attractive or easer to relate to.
What did mens withdrawal from religion mean?
That some groups gradually became feminised spaces that emphasise women’s concerns e.g. ordination of women in the CofE.
What does Woodhead argue that mens withdrawal of religion continues to make religion?
More attractive to women and creates examples of ‘religious feminism’.
What are women more likely to face than men?
Social deprivation, marginality, disillusionment and alienation from wider society.
What does Weber’s theodicy of disprivilege mean women are more likely to do:
- experience poverty
- experience personal/ family problems more acutely
- be less self confident - marginalised and therefore seek self-improvement (through faith or NRM)
- less powerful in a patriarchal society particularly w/c women and isolated women in unpaid employment.
What do the factors of Weber’s theodicy mean?
That women may find solace in religious groups offering solutions, support or compensation for their feelings.
Case study: women and the new age
- 61% ppts are female
- NA celebrates the natural - links to women’s role in natural processes
- Bruce women are emotionally centred which fits NA.
- NA emphasises authenticity rather than gender roles.
- Woodhead NA appeal to individual sphere concerned with autonomy and personal growth - women can focus on inner self rather than social roles.
- Stark and Bainbridge sects appeal to women as compensators for health problems. Moral. Conservatism and social deprivation.
Case study: pentocostal gender paradox
- 20% of Latin American population.
- Emphasises direct experience with God through the Holy Spirit which empowers both genders.
- Patriarchal but Brusco claims women can utilise faith to gain status at home.
- Involves a level of asceticism - woman use this to combat ‘culture of machismo’ redirecting funds to the family and church.
What did the 2021 census show?
A general discipline in religion in the UK however religions popular within minority ethnic groups tend to retain the same levels of participation.
What is Britain now characterised by due to immigration?
Religious pluralism even though Christianity is still the biggest religious group.
African carribeans
- Make up 17% of ll those attending Christian churches.
- Many were Christian before moving.
- Christianity developed in Pentecostalist and charismatic tradition which focuses on direct experience of God through joyful, exuberant worship.
- Found British churches to be overly restrictive/ traditional.
- Congregations in half the Pentecostalist churches in England are predominantly black.
- Pentecostalism is the fastest growing group within Christianity globally and in the UK.
- Premier Christianity Magazine estimates 17,000 Pentecostalist churches in the UK.
- UK is home to around 3 million people who are part of the Pentecostalist movement.
Asian groups
- people from Pakistani, India and non-Christian background had to establish their own temples, mosques and other places of worship.
- Main religions = Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.
- Some values associated with these religions are under pressure and difficult to sustain e.g. Hinduist caste system or arranged marriages and desire for men and women to be educated differently.
- Hard to keep traditions in society where human rights and equality legislation exists.
What research shown major minority ethnic groups in Britain are?
Significantly more religious than White ethnic majority even though they share some similarities e.g. younger people being less religious and women showing more commitment.
What group is religious practice highest and lowest in?
Highest = minority ethnic groups
Lowest = predominantly white Christian ethnic majority
What did the Department of communities and local government 2009/10 Citizenship survey find?
79% Muslims, 74% Sikhs and 70% Hindus regularly practice religion compared to 33% Christians.
What did the 2011/12 British Social Attitudes Survey find?
50% of Christian’s never attend religious services compared to 23% of non-Christian believers.
What evidence shows the growth of mosques and temples and the closing of Christian churches?
1961: 7 mosques, 3 Sikh temples, 1 Hindu temple and 55,000 Christian Churches.
2005 - 1,500 mosques, 200 Sikh temples, 189 Hindu temples and 47,600 Christian churches.
Another 4,000 churches likely to disappear over 15 years - Christian Research.
What type of schools is there growing demand for?
State-funded schools with religious minority faith schools - particularly Muslim school where girls and boys can be educated separately.
Controversial - seen discriminatory towards religious/ gender grounds and a threat to social cohesion.
What did the 2014 Opinium Survey for the Observer suggest?
58% of voters were against state funding for faith schools.
2011 - 6,900 state funded faith schools in England - 99% = Christian, 38 = Jewish, 11 = Muslim and 4 = Sikh.
What did religion ease?
The transition into a new culture providing support and community for minority groups.
What did Herberg suggest?
High levels of religious participation among first generation immigrants in the USA.
What did Bruce find religion provided for Irish, African Carribena, Muslim and Hindu communities?
A focal point however once these groups made a transition into wider society religion lost its role and importance.
What did Pryce find?
Pentecostalism is an ‘adaptive religion of the oppressed’ which helped African Caribbeans adapt to British society playing a ‘Protestant ethic’ role in encouraging self reliance and thrift.
Gave people mutual support and hope.
What does Bruce suggest higher religiosity is?
An assertion of community solidarity and pride.
How did Bruce suggest religion acts as?
- focal point for community and cohesion and defence - language, culture and traditions are kept keeping society together - Durkheim.
- A source of identity and support during period of upheaval, self-esteem protected (similar to Malinowski)
What did Davie agree with Bruce about?
Religion is a means of maintaining tradition, group cohesion and community solidarity.
She links this to other aspects of ethnic identity e.g. art, diet and dress.
Places of worship protect ultralight values and traditions.
What did Modood et al find religion is an important source of?
Socialisation and as a means of maintaining traditional morality. It helped people cope with worries/ pressures which could have been arising from hostility and discrimination caused by racism in the wider society.
What did Bird suggest religion was?
A means of preserving culture and language and coping with oppression in a racist society e.g. immigrants founded Black-led Churches in the UK.
What did Brierley find a growth in?
New churches in London catering for immigrants.
What are the reasons for higher commitment in minority ethnic groups?
Cultural transition
Cultural defence and community identity
Social identity
Marginality and social disprivilege
What can religion provide for identity?
Many markers of identity e.g. customs, dress, food etc
Members can resist the denial of status and devaluing of their own culture by racism.
What did Johal find?
Younger British Asians forged a hybrid identity (Brasian) selecting elements of their parents religion and UK culture - higher level of personal choice and less religious restrictions e.g. no diet/ stress.
What did Butler find similar to Johal?
18-30 year old Muslim women retained some religious values but also challenged religious restrictions using UK culture.
What can explain the higher level of religiosity in minority ethnic groups?
Opium of the masses - Marx
Compensators - Stark and Bainbridge
Theodicy of disprivilege - Weber
What are minority groups more likely to face and what can this lead to?
Social deprivation and marginality leading to alienation from wider society and higher levels of religiosity.
What did government data show in 2021?
79% of Bangladeshi households were in the 2 lowest income quintiles for annual income.
Over half of households from Pakistani, Asian other, black and other ethnic groups were also in the 2 lowest income quintiles.
What did the 2023 EVENS survey show?
40-50% of Black respondents reported facing racist abuse whilst out in public.
1/6 respondents had experienced a racially motivated physical assault.
What is the highest growing religion in the UK (2021 census)
Islam with an increase of 1.2 million during the decade which compared to Christianity has decreased by 5.8 million
Why as Anti Muslim sentiment grown since 9/11 and 7/7 bombings?
Due to stereotyping, lack of education and increased negative media attention.
What evidence shows that Muslims face fear and harassment and have become increasingly stigmatised in the UK?
3,866 hate crimes committed against Muslims between April 2023 and 2024.
Even though there has been an increase in Islamophobic incidents why has Islam grown?
It has become an important marker of identity for many whether they want it to be or not.
What has Islam and its symbols and values become?
A central feature in building a positive identity in the face of the challenges they face.
What % of British Muslims are under 25 and what does this pattern signal?
70% - signals long-term trends as young Muslims of today are parents of tomorrow.
What generation did Mirza find to show increased religiosity and how did they show this?
Second and third generation Muslims.
Shown through:
- women wearing hijabs
- growing membership of Islamic political and youth groups
- growing demand for specific Islamic legal and financial education
- growing popularity of Shoriah law with younger Muslims.
What factors did Mirza suggest for the rise in Islamic identity amongst young people?
- Foreign policy
- Decline in other identity sources
- Multicultural policies
Mirza - foreign policy
Response to seemingly anti-Islamic foreign policies in the 2000s e.g. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mirza - decline in other identity sources
Less association with political parties, trade unions, social class and ethnicity. Younger people whose status is less secure search for new sources of identity and belonging.
Mirza - multicultural policies
Policies recognise the importance of diversity, integration and respect. Empowers Muslims to demand religious freedoms e.g. faith schools, religious dress and laws against blasphemy.
What does Mirza suggest multicultural policies aimed to include and protect Muslims may have had?
The opposite effect as was intended.
What did multicultural policies make some Muslims feel?
Excluded from mainstream society whilst simultaneously generating hostility among the white ethnic majority.
This led to Muslims being seen as asking for special treatment and for being unwilling to adapt to mainstream society.
What does hostility drive young Muslims further into?
Embracing an Islamic identity, almost as forms of social protest as they are constantly reminded of their differences.
What factors of churches can be linked to social class?
- Universal - includes members from all classes.
- UK upper and m/c are over represented because of its association with the establishment and conservative ideology.
- YouGov over 60% of regular attenders at church were m/c.
What factors of denominations link to social class?
- Anti-establishment - broke away from mainstream religion.
- Wallis - respectable institutions so don’t attract lower social classes.
- appeal to upper w/c and lower m/c the most.
What factors of sects link to social class?
- Recruited most disadvantaged members of society.
- Require members to give up previous life so people with lots to lose are unlikely to join.
- Can give the deprived a way to cope with disadvantages e.g. Black Muslims in the USA recruit the most disadvantaged black Americans.
- Wallis - 1960s and 70s appealed o relatively deprived m/c of affluent students seeking compensation for a lack of spiritual life.
What factors of cults link to social class?
- Client cults (Stark and Bainbridge) or world affirming NRMs (Wallis) appeal to successful and affluent people who want to be more successful.
- Other cult movements similar to sects attract disadvantaged/ relatively deprived people.
How do the new age link to social class?
- Heelas - new age appeals to m/c particularly women.
- Bruce - appeals to those in expressive professions e.g. media as they believe in self improvement.
Lower social classes and religion
- Marx - opium of the masses - cushioning pains of exploitation keeping people in their positions e,g. Hindu caste system.
- Neo- Marxists - religion offers a basis of counter-hegemony and hope for a better society and can spark change - liberation theology.
- Weber - theodicy of disprivilege (world rejecting NRMs people’s temple).
- Stark and Bainbridge - compensates for marginalisation and relative deprivation ( growth of Pentecostalism providing community.)
Middle classes and religion
- Increasingly engaged in New age and NRMs.
- Postmodernists - traditional sources of identity are fragmented and people can create their own identity due to globalisation - m/c have the time and space to dedicate finding their new identity.
- Heelas - m/c and upper class buy into NRMs and new age as they offer key to success, knowledge and happiness.
- Many aspects of new age (crystals) require money and time so are. Ore accessible to m/c and upper classes.
Upper class and religion
- Over represented in church due to state connections and social order.
- Durkheim - religion involves collective practices, sacred symbols can represent society therefore when people worship them they are worshipping society e.g. totemism/ civil religion.
- Durkheim - regular shared rituals reinforce collective conscience and maintain social integration - benefit upper class.
Social classes evaluation
- difficult to measure religiosity - McKinnon - dearth of research on the relationship between religion and social class creating a data gap.
- social classes are a social construct and people self-identify what class they are which doesn’t always reflect reality creating skewed data.
- church attendance in the uk isn’t correlated with social classes and attendance doesn’t measure religiosity of a group.
Age and religiosity trends
- belief in God is lowest among those under 34 and highest over 55.
- More than 50% of young people say they aren’t religious compared to 2% of those over 65 (British social attitudes survey and European values study).
- Half of all Church of England churches have no under 20s attending.
Voas and Crockett - the aging effect
- Disengagement - older people become detached from integrating mechanisms of society and face privatisation of their lives - religion provides social support/ network of people.
- ill health and death - older people may become more concerned about spiritual matters like afterlife and engage with religion for comfort, coping and meaning.
How are old people more likely to have a greater emphasis placed on religion?
Through the education system and socialisation in the family when they were younger which may have laid the groundwork for them to rediscover religiosity which they may had ignored before.
What does Voas note young people are less willing to do in developed countries?
Identify with a religion, attend services or describe religion as important in their lives.
Shown in the 2021 census - increased amount of people under 40 stating they have no religion compared to the 2011 census.
What does Catto suggest young people are more likely to rely on?
Their own conscience to guide their behaviour: family, friends, social media and popular culture all have a greater significance than religion and a religious identity is now a minority.
What are the 4 reasons why the age gap in religion is widening?
- Secularisation
- Expanded spiritual marketplace
- Declining religious education
- Pragmatic reasons
How is secularisation causing the age gap in religion to widen?
- Declining religious thinking and practice is characterised by growing disenchantment - Weber.
- Loss of power of metanarritives like religion due to advancements in science but also increasing focus on individualism.
- Secular spirituality - Lynch suggests young people are attaching sacred status to secular things e.g. celebrities which can inspire reflection on values.
- Negative view of traditional religions - many organisations appear old fashioned, boring or out of touch to younger people - attitudes to social issues like abortion, contraception and LGBTQIA+ seems alien to some in an increasingly modern and liberal society.
How does the expanded spiritual marketplace cause the age gap to widen in religion?
- Due to globalisation young people are exposed to an influx of info about different religions and spiritualities.
- Cusack - young people exercise choice in identity including religious beliefs/ practices - stepped away from traditional religions to different subcultural groups e.g. penganism/ Wicca.
- Lynch - young people are taking advantage of an ‘expanded spiritual marketplace’ - pick n mix of spiritual and religious ideas.
- Davie - as a result if the pick n mix spirituality religions has become individualised and privatised - people may not feel like they belong to a particular religion and may not make any public displays of belief or admit them to surveys - believing without belonging - Davie.
How does the decline in religious education cause the age gap to widen in religion?
- Children no longer taught about religion the same way.
- Secular socialisation - religion is losing importance in society and lessens with each generation as religious practices aren’t part of the socialisation process in public/families.
- Bruce - CofE is increasingly unable to recruit young people through church Sunday schools as religious education.
- 50% of children attended a Sunday school in 1900 and this went down to 4% by 2000 and continues to decrease.
- Opposition from Athens rite and humanist groups.
- Multiculturalism is taught in schools.
How do pragmatic reasons cause the age gap to widen in religion?
- Catto - family, friends, social media and pop culture etc have a greater influence on identity/ values than religion.
- Leisure is a big part of the consumerism and life - quick changing culture shifts focus from spiritual meanings to this worldly matters.
Age Evaluation:
- Based on Western Europe and not necessarily the pattern worldwide.
- USA hasn’t experienced the same youth decline holding higher participation rate in many organisations which is partially due to religious socialisation within families and communities e.g. Christian youth camps.
- Hasn’t been a decline in youth participation in Islam - Judaism has retained similar numbers partially due to religious education in family life.
