Casanova Flashcards
Casanova - Explain PWEC
Premodern Western European Christendom was the religious state of Western Europe before secularisation. It was define by dualism between the two worlds. In PWEC, membership of the church was compulsory, so we know little about individual religiosity
Casanova - What myth is secularisation based on?
Secularisation is based on the myth that PWECs were more religious than modern WECs which does not hold true
Casanova - What happened to religion in the modern secular realm?
Religion became differentiated in the modern secular realm, and became another sphere under the two main spheres of capitalism and market
Casanova - What happened during the Protestant Reformation?
PWEC was destroyed, and secular spheres were freed from religious control. It also helped shape new religious activity and development, and therefore blurred the religious/secular divide
Casanova - Define the ‘other world’ and ‘this world’
That other world is heaven and all things sacred; this world is earth, which is also divided into two realms - the sacred and the profane
Casanova - What did Casanova say about secularisation theory?
He said that social scientists had failed to account for differentiation within religion, because they had assumed that all religions would reach the same state of religious decline
Casanova - What do Japan and the US say about the secularisation theory?
The fact that religion shows no decline in Japan or the US suggests that’s modernity cannot equal secularisation
Casanova - What did the Enlightenment critique do?
It attacked the metaphysical state of religious belief, religious institutions, and God itself in an effort to establish scientific thought as absolute
Casanova - Explain the debate around privatised religion?
Some people tolerated religion as long as it was privatised and had no effect on governance, the economy or law
Casanova - Explain Marx’s theory on religion
Marx believed that religion was tied to class, and the abolition of class would lead to the disappearance of religion
Casanova - Explain Luther’s theory of secularisation
Luther believed that secularisation would happen subjectively, so it could not offer an objective anthropological assessment
Casanova - Name three criticisms of the public state in relation to religion
Racial history and its effect on religious bias
Bias for Protestantism
Bias for sovereign-state relations
